Hand Up at Waves of Kindness
Jodie Cameron goes beyond the racks to meet two of Noosa’s kindest souls…
As a kid, I thought op shops smelt musty and were full of other people’s cast-offs. These days, I’m a proud thrifter, and my local op shop saves things for me because they’ve gotten to know me so well. Now with two kids in tow, it’s one of our favourite pastimes because we are giving back to our community and love the thrill of finding something that feels like it’s been waiting for us to give it a new home.
So, when I was asked to interview Queensland Day Award winners, Waves of Kindness volunteers, Jackie Andrews and Roy Meese, I felt like I had won the lottery. Of all the racks I’ve run my hands along, Waves of Kindness in Noosaville has long been my favourite, just ask my colleagues – I’m known for nabbing a bargain or two. I couldn’t wait to meet the people who spread more than a little kindness to Noosa locals every day.
There’s something comforting about a familiar face who remembers your name, asks how your week’s been, or simply takes the extra minute to help you find what you’re after. Kindness costs nothing and it means everything. The store might look like an op shop from the street, but it’s so much more than bulging racks and daily bargains.
This Noosa charity runs a care centre offering emergency relief, food vouchers and counselling to locals doing it tough, alongside a weekly women’s friendship group. For people experiencing homelessness or sleeping in their cars, the care centre offers a discreet, appointment-only service – a quiet, private space, a cup of tea, and an hour of someone’s undivided time, no judgement attached.
Waves of Kindness works alongside other local agencies rather than in competition with them and has become a hub of hope – Centrelink visits every Friday, Carers Queensland comes monthly to help with NDIS applications, as does the Department of Housing for social housing and rent subsidy support – sparing people the runaround of queues and navigating it all alone. If someone needs new tyres, their rego paid or a bed for their kids, they work together to cover what they can. Every Wednesday, the charity also delivers food to 13 local schools through its Breakfast Club, working alongside Foodbank to make sure no child goes without.
Jackie Andrews has been part of the Waves of Kindness family for four years, and with her gentle demeanour and sparkling eyes it doesn’t take long to understand why she was nominated. She has a way of making a stranger feel like a regular within minutes – a big smile, a friendly hello, and a shop that plays music loud enough that customers occasionally break into song – guilty!
“People come in and they might be having the most awful day,” Jackie says, “But the music, it does help lift you.”
It’s the quieter moments Jackie remembers most. She recalls a woman who came in recently and simply broke down, overwhelmed and out of options. Jackie and Cooroy shop manager Teri took her out the back for a cup of tea, nothing more complicated than that. The woman came back the next day and said it was exactly what she’d needed and that she could finally focus again.
“That’s what happens here,” she says. “You get people who in a moment just need some help, some nurture. It’s that wraparound support they need.”
It’s a kind of care Jackie understands well. She spent years volunteering with other local charities before finding her way to Waves of Kindness, and what’s stayed with her is how much shame people carry asking for help. For Jackie, kindness isn’t a handout – it’s a hand up and it’s not always who you’d expect walking through the door.
“There’s people who’ve never had to ask for help but now need to, and they’re ashamed,” she says.
People who never imagined a run of bad luck, rising rent prices, or a broken-down car could tip their life sideways. Breaking down that shame, one conversation and one cup of tea at a time, is what Jackie considers the real work. Now based at their store in Cooroy, for Jackie, the reward is simple.
“It’s giving back,” she says. “I’ve had a pretty good life, but I’ve worked hard for it, and so has my husband, and I now have a little bit of time to give back to help other people.”
If Jackie is the shop’s welcome, Roy Meese is its steady heartbeat. At 80 years old, he still volunteers four days a week, testing and tagging every electrical item that comes through the door – a skill sharpened over 45 years working as an electrician.
“It’s a satisfying role,” Roy says, “because I know it like the back of my hand.”
Roy moved to Australia 22 years ago and has clocked up 20 years of volunteering since, 15 of those at Waves of Kindness. Before that, he spent a decade volunteering at NoosaCare Carramar in
Tewantin, often doing both at once. Ask him what keeps him going now and he answers without hesitation.
“I’ve always worked hard all my life, and I can’t envisage stopping,” he says. “If my body tells me to stop, I’ll stop. But until then, I’ll keep working.”
At an age when most have long since put their feet up, Roy is proof of what staying useful and busy can do for a person. He puts it down to more than good genes – it’s the routine, the exercise of getting up and out four days a week, and the good company. It’s something Roy and the team have seen play out, people who retire can sometimes lose their purpose, and often don’t last long once they do. What he’s found in the role is something a wage never quite gave him.
“Satisfaction,” he says. “I haven’t got that pressure – that’s what kills, work pressure.”
No stock targets, no KPIs to chase, just the steady, useful rhythm of a job done well. Roy has watched Waves of Kindness grow up around him. When he started, the operation was based around the corner on Rene Street, a little more haphazard, a little less polished. These days it runs from a purpose-built shed the charity has called home for a decade – proof of just how far the whole operation has come.
Behind the shopfront is aisle after aisle of neatly sorted stock, all of it deemed shop-worthy before it ever makes it out onto the floor. In one corner sits more than a dozen crates of brand-new Christmas stock, still in its original packaging, leftover from a Christmas in July sale. Some of what doesn’t sell locally still finds a home. Around five shipping containers a year are sent as far as the Northern Territory, Alice Springs, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
We’ve become a throw-away society now, fast fashion and impulse buys made to be discarded within a season – so it’s a strange kind of miracle to see so much perfectly good, unopened stock waiting patiently for someone to want it. Nothing here is treated as rubbish until proven otherwise.
As I drive home, The Kindness Song comes on my playlist. It’s a timely reminder that kindness rarely needs planning, more just a pause, a moment of thought before you speak or act. Your smile might be all someone needs. Next time you’re driving through Cooroy or Noosaville, pull into Waves of Kindness – you might just find something you didn’t know you were looking for which might make a world of difference to someone in need.
THE RIPPLE EFFECT
Waves of Kindness, by the numbers…
• $344,870 given back to the community
• 674 families and individuals helped through emergency relief
• 88,000 breakfasts served to students across 13 local schools through Breakfast Club
• 1,500 support visits through the Care Centre
• Contributed to seven major community projects, including the Noosa Salvos Safe Carpark and Noosa Flexi School Driving Program
• Around 90 volunteers and 26 staff
Figures unaudited, provided by Waves of Kindness
REACH OUT
To find the nearest Waves of Kindness location, to seek help or to volunteer, donate or support, or visit www.wavesofkindness.com.au or call 0499 091 352. If it is urgent please ring 000 or Lifeline on 131 114.
