By RON LANE
THEY are out there – they definitely are. This may come as a surprise, but there are quite a lot of them.
One of them may even be your next door neighbor – lived next door for several years without your being aware.
Who are THEY? They are that special breed of people whose purpose in life is to help those in need and, God bless their big, magnificent hearts – expect nothing in return.
Proud to say that in our community of Noosa Shire we have many. They join an organisation or with a few friends take on a project and then, as they say, the rest is history.
The original group was a band of five local ladies who call themselves the Thursday Girls – Di Kirby, Barbara Harris, Dorothy Maloney, Carol Donovan and Liz Meikle.
And their goal – helping others.
“The name the Thursday Girls comes from our principal fund-raising functions held on the last Thursday of the month, running from February through to November inclusive,” Dorothy Maloney said.
“Local and supportive restaurateurs allow us to make a margin on lunch at various Noosa restaurants as well as running raffles of donated prizes, at these events.
Apart from the restaurant lunches there are on occasions, afternoon functions in private homes where people can mingle and get to know each other. This formula seems to be working well and as each month goes by our functions are becoming more successful; new ladies are always made welcome.”
It all started back in 2012 when the five ladies would meet for lunch; and it so happened that it was always on a Thursday.
Now, four years later, Di Kirby has at her fingertips, a database of some 180 ladies with an average of 60-80 attending these monthly events.
Their first major project was to help the Katie Rose Cottage.
“We started our efforts to raise awareness and funds at our monthly functions which we held for local ladies to get together and make new friends,” Dorothy said.
“In this process we helped the Katie Rose Cottage for the first two years and made worthwhile contributions to that organisation.”
Following this their next major function was an Educational Support Program which is currently in its third year. This came about in March 2014 when Keith Trace of Rotary suggested that the Girls, who had been supporting the Katie Rose project, take over the educational program. This was aimed at financially assisting families from state schools in the Noosa Shire to achieve their educational needs and goals.
“There are many families in our community, which from time to time face financial hardships and are often not able to fund extra-curricular activities for their children. Our aim is to make these families aware that there is extra help for them in the community, which they may be unaware of. All state schools in the shire are in contact with us and make requests for funds to help such families.”
The Girls believe that by the parents contacting the school principal or chaplain themselves they would feel more comfortable explaining their circumstances.
“All applications are totally anonymous to us,” Dorothy said. “And the school principals have the final say about who receives the funding.”
Further to this Liz Meikle added: “Since the beginning of 2014 when we first became involved with the Educational Support Program we have assisted 192 children by contributing approximately $29,250. We have also been fortunate that some individual benefactors have given substantial donations. Getting donations is always hard but it is always a little harder when you are not a registered charity. This is something we are exploring.”
To ensure that their organisation is beyond reproach, the Girls have set a very strong and clear policy of operation. In this day and age when so many so called charities are nothing but a front for what can only be classed as individuals of doubtful character, their policy is indeed to be admired.
“The hallmarks of a successful charity are clarity of strategy, good government and management, operational efficiency, demonstrating social impact, income generation and transparency; we believe we meet these hallmarks.”
Apart from the hardships of raising funds there have been experiences that have been very emotional, with some really tugging at the heart strings. For example they have been made aware of cases where children have been known to go to the swimming clubs but when the lessons start, some have to sit at the pool side and watch their little friends because the parents can’t afford the lessons.
During their various fund-raising school projects one thing that has impressed the group is the dedication and kindness of some of the school social workers.
“They are the eyes and ears of projects like ours and deserve our total respect.”
All the Girls agree.
To work for the people of our communities is good but to work for the children is the ultimate.
So to the ladies of the Thursday Girls, let us take pride in their achievements and acknowledge them for they are truly – Our People.
