31 May, 2010 9:42AM AEST
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/05/31/2913604.htm
On Saturday, more than 2000 volunteers across Brisbane united to help out householders who needed a hand in their homes.
Nearly ten years ago, a group of pastors met in Brisbane to try and fulfil that oft-heard dream - to make a difference in the community.
"We wanted to make Brisbane come to a point of recognising that we're all in this together and we can all make a difference if we actually pull together," explained Pastor Ben Gray, one of the original organisers of the program.
"Because we're pastors of large and small communities of diversity and culture... in the richness we could find a seed of something we could do together as a whole church in the whole city," he said to 612's Terri Begley.
That seed became 'Yes! We Care', a program of offering practical help to householders struggling to keep up with the tasks at home.
"We came up with a concept and we thought, why don't we do some acts of kindness?" said Pastor Gray.
"We don't want to do parks, we don't want to do streets, we want to get into actually touching people's lives to make a difference."
With the support of Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, the program began getting in touch with families or households requiring help through existing service providers, and in the first year of Yes! We Care, the group helped 300 households with tasks around the home, like mowing lawns, spring cleaning, cutting down trees and painting.
Last Saturday, more than 2000 volunteers unites for Yes! We Care day, when 600 householders were assisted.
Erica Platt was one. "They're helping me out because plants have got away from me and they're growing all over the fence line, so hopefully I'll have a nice tidy yard by the time they've finished!" she said.
Erica was amazed when a group of about seven youths wielding secateurs and clippers knocked on her to offer their help.
"I couldn't believe it!," she said. "I thought I was getting one man and maybe a lad or something like that."
"Their blood's worth bottling - they can come again," she laughed.
Volunteer Rebecca says the clean-up groups are often met with amazement from the householders.
"They actually can't believe we're walking in in the first place - they were just amazed that there were a group of seven to eight people under the age of 30 who were willing to give their time on a Saturday morning," she observed.
Not everyone in the group is involved in practical tasks though.
"We make sure not everyone on the team is doing a physical thing they could be just sitting there, having a cup of tea and talking," noted Pastor Gray.
"We've got wonderful stories of a youth group going in and playing the piano and singing with an older couple."
In Fred Witchurch's yard, the elderly gentleman was thrilled to discover that one of his volunteers was Malaysian.
After spending time in Indonesia in World War Two, Fred once spoke Indonesian and Malaya fluently, and was pleased to find someone on which to practise his language skills.
"It's very nice to talk to someone from Malaya, it makes me remember!"
Winson Tay, who'd been busy trimming and tidying Fred's trees, was equally excited. "It's very impressive," he said of Fred's language skills as the men beamed at each other.
Pastor Grey says that helping out is an uplifting experience for the volunteers.
"They get energised - there's a real spirit of enjoyment about it," he said.
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