Who are Mini Vinnies?
Mini Vinnies are based in schools and parishes across the world. They come together to form a part of the St Vincent de Paul Society, which is a voluntary organisation dedicated to tackling poverty in all its forms. Mini Vinnies meet to pray, discuss and support however they can, to help make a difference in their community.
Our Year 6 class is named after St Vincent de Paul and in 2023, the children in Year 6 will be enrolled as Mini Vincentians. Together, we will work to turn our concerns into action, using the simple formula of ‘see, think, do’ to find people in need in our community and to help them.
There are many ways that St Vincent de Paul class can work together to help by, for example:
- Writing cards to children in hospital
- Visiting local care homes to sing or play games with the residents
- Knit scarves for the homeless
- Run food collections for local food banks
Bake sale for Lend with Care – February 2023
We baked and sold cakes to raise money for Lend with care – a charity which allows us to fund start up businesses in developing countries
Sale of coaters for charity – June 2022
One of our Helping Hands groups, chose to make eco-friendly items to sell for charity. They decorated wooden slices, which they have sold in order to help others.
The money raised will be given as a ‘loan’ to someone trying to make a better life for themselves. The charity is called ‘Lend with Care’ and it brings together entrepreneurs in low-income countries with the people that have the power to help them – people like us.
Run by CARE International UK, one of the world’s leading poverty fighting organisations, ‘Lend with care’ is a revolutionary way for us to help people to work their way out of poverty with dignity. The money that we raise, will be given as a loan to help them start their business. Then when it is flourishing, they repay the ‘loan’. This will mean that the money can then be given to another person to help them to help themselves.
Our Helping Hands did a fantastic job of decorating and selling their wood slice coasters. They would like to thank everyone who bought one of their creations. They would also like to thank those who donated extra money when buying the coasters.
Donations for Ukrainian Refugees – June 2022
Our Helping Hands have organised the collection of donated toiletry items for two Ukrainian ladies, who have had to flee the Ukraine for the safety of England. They have been offered accommodation by our own Mrs Crouch. The children were very eager to show that our St John Fisher family would want to make them feel loved and cared for.
Our President and Vice President are displaying the items collected below. We would like to thank everyone who donated an item.
Litter Pick 29.3.2022
This morning, a group of our Mini Vinnies took on a litter pick in our local area. This was part of a project they have been working on to improve our local environment. Within half an hour, they had collected 11kgs in weight of litter!
We are very proud of the manner in which they have represented our school. We had lots of lovely comments from the public while we were collecting, even the refuse collection team waved and said thank you for helping them.
Now, we need to keep getting the message across about the importance of keeping the environment free of litter. The group were especially shocked that so much rubbish had been left near to litter bins! They were also a little surprised at the types of litter they found.
See their work below:
