Wednesday June 01, 2022

Birdwood CWL continues to thrive

Local

Despite COVID restrictions, the Birdwood Catholic Women’s League (CWL) branch has managed to find ways to continue to meet and support the community and charities over the past two years.

Wednesday June 01, 2022

Wednesday June 01, 2022 Comments

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The nine active members meet on Wednesdays in the Mary O’Dea Centre after the 9am Mass.

Some of the activities undertaken last year include catering for a number of funerals, supporting the families by supplying a light meal after each funeral – a service much appreciated. The branch supplied salads and desserts for the ‘Hills Are Alive’ event at Gumeracha, to thank the CFS for their heroic work while protecting residents during the Cudlee Creek bushfire.

Raffles were held during the year to help fund projects close to home and far away. A raffle at the parish picnic raised $300 to support the training of seminarians in Africa. Proceeds of another went towards helping to finance painting the roof at St Joseph the Worker Church at Lobethal, while a small Christmas raffle, which raised in excess of $240, was ironically won by the diocesan CWL chaplain, Fr Brian Angas.

The branch’s permanent trading table at the Mary O’Dea Centre continues to be very successful and the profits contribute to a variety of projects such as funding the professional polishing of the six beautiful old brass vases at the Birdwood church.

For the third year the CWL branch is supporting Sister Stan’s orphanage in Uganda and has pledged to send $50 per month through Catholic Mission. A jar is placed near the door of the church at both Lobethal and Birdwood and parishioners are encouraged to place their small change in the jar each Sunday.

The members also collect plastic bottle tops and bread tags, which are taken to St Aloysius College and then dispatched to different organisations that help to supply wheelchairs in Africa or recycle the plastic into useful objects like prosthetic limbs.

This year the branch has remained busy. At the picnic for the Adelaide Hills parish and St Catherine’s School in March, members served tea and coffee while running a raffle which raised $300 for Catholic Mission to support the training of Religious Sisters overseas.