Raising money to come to WYD is hard for many a pilgrim, but for families in Queensland fundraising became a musical joy.

In the apple, pear and grape growing country town of Stanthorpe, three hours drive south of Brisbane, school children and parishioners alike have been busy fundraising for WYD with lamingtons and music recitals.

Last Sunday was the culmination of the St. Joseph’s Parish fundraising efforts in Stanthorpe.

After Sunday Mass at St. Joseph’s Parish, young pilgrims had a big lamington drive.

“And judging by the numbers of trays of lamingtons being sold, it looks like it was quite successful,” says parishioner, Mary Rofe.

On the same Sunday (15 June), renowned musician and concertmaster of The Queensland Orchestra, Warwick Adeney together with harpist Lucy Gallop also helped with the fundraising by giving a local recital in Stanthorpe.

The two musicians performed a selection of musical treats, which closed with a rendition of Piazzola’s ‘Story of the Tango’ in the St Joseph’s Chapel to a cosy audience of 20.

Warwick Adeney and his wife Michelle have seven children under the age of 20 and are expecting their eighth baby in October, and nearly the whole family will be coming to WYD in July.

With his extensive family experience, Adeney interspersed the music concert with anecdotes about the composers, and giving insights into each piece – making it a music lesson as well.

Mother of eight children, Mary Rofe helped organize the musical recital to raise money for parishioners in the country town to make the WYD08 pilgrimage and says that judging by the applause, one could tell the musicians will be eagerly awaited.

“It was a heartbreakingly beautiful passion of the violin combined soulfully with the lyrical serenity of the harp to bring the audience to a rapturous display of approval,” she says.

“Pope Benedict would have been delighted with the music I am sure - as he is an accomplished pianist himself,” Mrs Rofe says.

After Days in the Diocese in Toowoomba, the pilgrims of Stanthorpe accompanied by Fr. Brian Connelly, several families including ten young pilgrims from the local school will make the journey down to Sydney by coach.

Stall for Families at Vocation Expo during WYD call for Images

In other news, the National Association for Catholic Families (NCAF) have been asked to have a stall at the WYD vocations exhibition at Darling Harbour.

Mary Clare Meney, Australian Coordinator of the NCAF, and designer Sidney Rofe are creating a ‘Family Wall’ for the Expo.

Imagine walking into a whole booth that is decked out on every side with images associated with family life.  This is where you can help. Mary Clare and Sidney are calling for photos of families that spread the message of family life to be put on the wall at the stall.

Mums, dads, babies laughing, happy couples, school photos, brothers, sisters, parents, couples, the afternoon football game, backyard cricket, going to Mass, first Communions, washing the car, the dog, the cat, the good times, the bad times, birthday parties, meal times, grandparents, aunties Baptisms – the list goes on.

Imagine having these images on the ceiling as well.

Imagine black and white images, historical images such as your grand-parents marriage photo in B+W or the family photo with sons dressed in army uniforms or any family context from any historical era.

The images can be from anytime or place around the world.

"The idea of all this is to illustrate that families are the foundation of society, and that from good families come great individuals who build up society," says Sidney Rofe, who is a freelance architect in Sydney helping to coordinate the stall. 

“We are hoping to get at least 1000 images for the wall,” says Mr Rofe. “So that is why we are making a world wide appeal to families from everywhere to share their family images with us.”

"All of these images will be arranged around a central image of the Holy Family who nurtured the greatest individual the world has ever known, Jesus Christ."

All readers are invited to participate in the stall, by sending any images that would contribute to the collage of family life.

How to be involved

Simply send your images to: Cet e-mail est protégé contre les robots collecteurs de mails, votre navigateur doit accepter le Javascript pour le voir

The deadline for sending images is: Friday 11th of July.

Images should be in JPEG or TIF format - no smaller than 300kb.

So tell your friends! And lets see how many families we can get up on that wall!

For further information about the NACF or this event please contact Mary Clare Meney on phone 02-98753664 or email Cet e-mail est protégé contre les robots collecteurs de mails, votre navigateur doit accepter le Javascript pour le voir

You might also like to check the NCAF website,  visit: www.cfnews.org.uk.