Thread Together volunteer van driver Brenton
National Volunteer Week National Volunteer Week in May was an important time to recognise and celebrate the more than 200 AnglicareSA volunteers whose commitment continues to shape lives in meaningful ways and enables us to offer a wide range of essential services to South Australians in need.
Brenton was looking for things he could do in his retirement to help others when his friend, AnglicareSA Chaplain Mara Di Francesco, suggested he should volunteer as a mobile wardrobe van driver for AnglicareSA’s Thread Together service, which provides South Australians in need with brand-new clothes that would otherwise end up in landfill. “I couldn’t on my own give the type of clothing away that Thread Together has, but AnglicareSA needed someone to volunteer to drive the van,” Brenton said. “The beauty of volunteering is that I can do something that I enjoy because I want to, and work with a great team of volunteers.”
As a Thread Together van driver, Brenton, with the support of a stylist, travels around metropolitan and regional South Australia to deliver clothing to those who have been referred to the service. Brenton said some people he visits have never had brand-new clothing and light up when they receive new clothes. “Once, a young girl experiencing homelessness saw a puffer jacket inside the van, and that was all she wanted,” he said. “She told me that when she left home, all she left with was her school uniform. “It touched my heart to know that I had helped her in some way move on and out of that situation.”
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