KATHLEEN Leggett is the epitome of a great volunteer.<\/p>\n
Kathleen, or Kathy as she prefers, recently clocked over 40 years as a volunteer at the St Vincent de Paul Society op-shop in Ararat, including over 30 years as manager.<\/p>\n
Six days a week, Kathy is in the shop helping with everything from serving customers, setting up displays and co-ordinating the shop\u2019s 22 volunteers.<\/p>\n
Last weekend, her service was recognised at a \u201ccall to serve\u201d ceremony hosted by the St Vincent de Paul Society in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Kathy started volunteering with the local shop in 1981, wanting \u201csomething to do\u201d as her children got older.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe opened on the 5th<\/sup> of May 1982 but I was here before that setting up the shop,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it,\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n Kathy\u2019s family have lived in Ararat for generations and she told the Advocate she wanted to get involved with Vinnies to help the community she loves.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we first started, I did it to keep myself sane. It was something to help other people but it also helped me because I got away from home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The local Vinnies raises substantial funding each year to help people in need. The shop is also part of the Ararat Relief Committee and acts as a food distribution and assistance hub on a rostered basis.<\/p>\n Kathy said after 40 years, she understands retail trade in Ararat can be very up and down.<\/p>\n \u201cPension week is usually quite good, but off pension week not so good. If we have trouble making our budgets, many of us go home and go through our wardrobes to bring in new things to sell,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are now 109 shops across Victoria and some of them are very big shops but we all have a budget to meet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe get lots of donations, especially for the size of (our) shop. If we have excess, we send items to other shops in our area or to Melbourne where they often struggle for donations.\u201d<\/p>\n Kathy said volunteering benefits the whole community.<\/p>\n \u201cIt isn\u2019t just about helping other people but volunteering is really good for your mental health. I get to meet lots of people I normally would never meet and some of the customers are really good friends,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The shop is also a place where people come first.<\/p>\n \u201cRecently a man came in, took off his shoes and put on a pair of ours. He asked if he could pay for them in weekly instalments. I was able to use a voucher to cover the cost. He was grinning like he\u2019d won the lottery,\u201d Kathy said.<\/p>\n Vinnies is always on the look out for new volunteers to help run their shop.<\/p>\n Anyone interested can drop in at 246 Barkly Street or call Kathy on 5352 5560.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KATHLEEN Leggett is the epitome of a great volunteer.
\nKathleen, or Kathy as she prefers, recently clocked over 40 years as a volunteer at the St Vincent de Paul Society op-shop in Ararat, including over 30 years as manager.
\nSix days a week, Kathy is in the shop helping with everything from serving customers, setting up displays and co-ordinating the shop\u2019s 22 volunteers.
\nLast weekend, her service was recognised at a \u201ccall to serve\u201d ceremony hosted by the St Vincent de Paul Society in Melbourne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IMG_5594-3-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-ef","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}