I would like to welcome the following schools who were recently commissioned as Mini Vinnie schools: St. Robert's, Harrogate; St. Joseph, Tadcaster; Holy Spirit, Heckmondwike; Sacred Heart, Hemsworth; Christ the King, Bramley; St. Joseph, Pudsey.

All of our Mini Vinnie schools have been very busy, however, in this edition of the Parish Magazine I would like to focus on St. Joseph‘s school in Wetherby and let them tell you about their very productive year.

St. Joseph's was commissioned as a Mini Vinnie school in October 2015 by Gaynor Markham and since that very special day we have never looked back. We would like to share with you what we have been doing this academic year and it started with a beautiful Mini Vinnie mass celebrated by Bishop Marcus at the Cathedral - the children are still talking about it.

Mini Vinnies are young members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which has sought since its very beginning to engage young people with the idea of charity and the wonderful work of the SVP. The motto of the Mini Vinnies is to "See, Think and Do". The groups of young people meet regularly, and have their own special pledge, prayer, and badge, which they are encouraged to wear to events in the Diocese.

We have a group of 14 Mini Vinnies from Years 4, 5 and 6. Our Mini Vinnies had an extremely busy autumn term! In September, they went to St. Anne's Cathedral in Leeds for the Mini Vinnie Commissioning Service, officiated by Bishop Marcus. They were very interested to see the Cathedral, and to walk through the door of Mercy, which was explained by the Bishop during the service. He focussed his homily on the responsibility of Mini Vinnies to ‘see' those in need, ‘think' of what they can do to help, and to ‘do' it! They also enjoyed taking some fun selfies on the minibus!


On Sunday 11th September, Canon Nunan urged the Parish to help with a local appeal for the humanitarian crisis in Syria and Iraq. A group organised by Churches Together had arranged to collate and send on winter clothing and footwear to these countries. Our Mini Vinnies sprang into action and made posters, and following a successful appeal helped teacher Mrs Tate to fill her 7 seater car to the roof twice over with bags of clothes. These were donated along with £50 cash collected towards the cost of transporting the goods. This was achieved in just a few days.

In November, whilst focussing on remembering the dead, the Mini Vinnies had the opportunity to represent our school and parish at the Wetherby Remembrance Day Parade. Our president laid a poppy wreath at the Cenotaph as part of the town's ceremony to remember those who died whilst serving our country across the past 100 years.

When Mrs Gray asked our Mini Vinnies to help with the Foundation Stage Crib Service, they were only too happy to help. Several gave up their break and lunchtime in order to help prepare the leaflets and the little bags of hay for the children. All of them came to help greet Foundation Stage pupils and their families in Church, give out the leaflets and show people to their seats. They were a wonderful help in preparing and serving the refreshments afterwards in the Church hall, even helping to wash up the plates. Connie deserves a special mention for almost single-handedly putting out about 80 chairs in the hall! In recognition of these fine efforts, the Mini Vinnies took a retiring collection for the SVP, raising over £100.

Our final task of the year came after a call for help from the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, in Leeds. They asked our Mini Vinnies to help them to support some families in their Corpus Christi parish, who were in need of food parcels to see them over Christmas. Many of our families donated dry and tinned goods. Mrs Tate agreed with Miss Milivojevic to spend some of the money collected at the Crib Service to create food hampers for families in our community who are in need. Mrs Tate and Mrs Lowe took the Mini Vinnies shopping! It became apparent that some of our Mini Vinnies are more savvy shoppers than others! Ryan excelled himself at sniffing out the bargains on offer in Morrisons, and Mrs Lowe coerced the store to donate several boxes of mince pies to our cause. We were able to deliver these to the sisters at their Live Nativity service so that the families received the goods in time for Christmas. We also collected toys and other Christmas presents for the SVP which were taken to the St. Vincent's Centre, York Road.

Supporting Mary's Meals

Our Mini Vinnies have been working very hard this term for two very important causes: Mary's Meals and the Community of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal in Leeds. Our focus for the term was going to be Mary's Meals alone, but when Sister Faustina got in touch to ask for our Mini Vinnies' help, we felt we could not refuse!

The Franciscan Sisters live in Osmondthorpe, Leeds. They try to reach out and help their neighbours, many of whom are in need of such basic things as food. The Sisters make up food parcels for many families, particularly over Easter and Christmas. The Sisters seek to help those in need, regardless of religious background, so some of the people they help are Catholics but many are not. They asked us to provide non perishable food items to be distributed amongst their neighbours. Our Mini Vinnies donated many items themselves, but they also got to school early for a whole week and set up a table collecting these food donations, which they then helped to load into Mrs Tate's car to be delivered to the Sisters in time for Easter.

In addition to this good work, the Mini Vinnies have been learning all about another charity called Mary's Meals. Founded in Scotland by Magnus MacFarlane Barrow, Mary's Meals is now a multinational charity which works in 14 of the world's poorest countries to provide a meal in a place of learning for children. The charity was founded and inspired by Magnus' encounter with a 14 year old boy called Edward, as he sat with his dying mother and 5 brothers and sisters in Malawi. Magnus asked Edward what his hopes were for the future and he replied "I would like to have enough food to eat, and I would like to go to school one day". Magnus fully embraced the Mini Vinnie motto of ‘See, think and do', as he went on to create a model which could then be replicated in many schools around the world. He assembled a group of local volunteers to arrive each day at the school, collect wood, light fires and cook basic meals mainly of porridge or rice to be given for free to all children who attend the school. Because the charity relies on over 200,000 volunteers, it keeps costs down to a minimum, and so can feed a child in the developing world for just £13.90 for a whole school year!

Our Mini Vinnies were very impressed by the way the charity works, and by what they are ultimately trying to achieve by their belief that food + school = hope for children. A free school meal will enable their families to let them attend school rather than work in the fields. An education gives them the best chance to break the cycle of poverty into which they have been born.

Our Mini Vinnies delivered an assembly on Mary's Meals in order to educate their classmates and their teachers about how the charity works and what it hopes to achieve. They decided they would like to do a fundraising Sponsored Walk in empathy with the many children who walk for miles barefoot in order to receive a Mary's Meal at school.

They walked to school from Spofforth, along the old railway line, arriving at school just in time for the start of their lessons. Each Mini Vinnie was set a target of raising £13.90. Many of our children smashed this target and in total their sponsored walk raised £401.60. Well done to all involved and the Mini Vinnies would like to thank all those who supported their efforts and donated throughout the spring term!

Becoming a Mini Vinnie school has enriched the life of our school and community and we will continue our work with energy and enthusiasm : Watch this space as we answer Pope Francis' call to the youth - "Do not be afraid - Go and Serve".

Thank you SVP for this wonderful gift.