Richard meet Heather and her two William and Alexander who are students at Guildford Grammar after Richard had spoken at the Eye Contact Exhibition at the School. Richard was taken by Heather and her family's service and commitment to the community, which is embodied in their own initiative project of knitting blankets for those who are experiencing homelessness.
Heather's two sons are 12 and 14 years and they are attending the School on a scholarship.
William and Alexander initiated the project and are supported by mum who is the main taxi.
The family is from South Africa and so are very aware of people who are struggling.
The family has been in Perth for five years.
Heather joined interact at her school and that group was involved with people who were in retirement and with people who were experiencing disadvantage. Heather then engaged with Rotaract who on a Wednesday night operated a soup van and administered first aid. Heather always came home with less clothing than she left with by giving items to those who were in need.
To pay for her education Heather was working in the evening at a restaurant and soon asked the owner for food from the restaurant for those who were hungry.
Married and living on a farm Heather and her were involved in Ecoclean to look after streets.
Their children saw service to others and a not to take way in life.
A significant event took place in Heather, William and Alexander's life while driving for a holiday. They encountered children on the side of the road holding small clay figurines made from clay and painted.
Having no money to offer the young person, he gave these two figurines for the dry roll half eaten by her son on the back seat. He was starving. The roll was given for two figurine animals.
Having arrived in Perth the family had three years of difficult immigration time. Almost ready to be removed. So the way forward was to be in service to others as it takes one's mind off of the issues.
Heather sets her boys a project every Christmas holidays.
The first year it was going through the collect from the verge items placed there for the Council collection. From those items the boys built a library with free book exchange on their verge for their neighbours.
The next year it was the focus on the litter on the road. Heather had given this as the reason why the family left South Africa for Australia so that a ten year old could understand it. The ten year old's response was to keep his neighbourhood in Australia clean with a two to three times a year streets clean with the neighbours.
While at Elizabeth Keys one evening the family noticed street children between the ages of twelve to twenty one. They wondered how those young people would cope with winter coming. Their response was the Knitting of scarfs and blanket square, so each evening all four family members knit each night.
A box with knitting in it has been placed in various reception areas with the label, "Knit a few lines while you wait." The knitting is of by 20 by 20 squares for blankets and pillow covers.
They have their Facebook site. At the family front gate every day their is a parcel with knitted blanket squares. There are over 340 on Facebook. Over 100 are engaged in knitted. One knitter is over 80 year of age and she can barely see. Beanies, blankets and scarfs.
People who receive these items feel treasured and the boys always personally distribute and fellowship with those receiving these gifts as they are accompanied by the dog.
The items are distributed through contact with Perth Homeless Street Connect and Anglicare Youth Connect. Having these conversation is the best outcome.
People in our community don't know homelessness and don't feel it. Heather is proud of the accepting awareness that her two boys are showing. One of her sons shared how he had a conversation with a young person Calling herself Michael but he knew she was not a boy to be safe.
Why is this an issue? It is not. They boys just accept people the way they are.
The question each day for the members of the family is, "What did you do that was kind today?"
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