Perth couple Bill and Dot Harris have been spending their time volunteering at MercyCare’s Wembley site for almost 54 years. Photo: Supplied.
Thursday is “MercyCare Day” for Perth couple Bill and Dot Harris, who started volunteering at St Joseph’s Orphanage in 1964.
Aged 89 and 85, Mr and Mrs Harris, who love to have a laugh and always find something to smile about, have spent every Thursday volunteering ever since at MercyCare’s Wembley site.
“That’s our Thursday, nobody ever asks us to do anything on a Thursday because they know we’re not available,” Mrs Harris said.
Mr Harris became involved at St Joseph’s Orphanage – run by the Sisters of Mercy – as a way of helping his friend, who volunteered in the mornings and afternoons working on the boiler in the laundry.
He offered to do the afternoon shift on the boiler to give his friend a break.
The couple had their own milk-round in Wembley at the time, which involved Mr Harris working from midnight to just after sunrise each day.
At the same time, the couple started using their milk truck to pick up food donations for the orphanage.
“We used to go to Fremantle, down to Mills and Wares and get the biscuits, the ones that were a bit overcooked or something like that, then we’d drive down to South Fremantle to the Potatoes Board, and they used to give us potatoes,” Mr Harris said.
Mrs Harris was also involved in sewing sessions with some of the Sisters, making items for them to fundraise, from cushions to children’s clothes and toys for almost 20 years.
“The last Sunday in November was called Gift Sunday, so they had a huge fete, it was a huge deal to have a stall selling handmade stuff you had to work all year,” she said.
The couple’s volunteering work has taken many different forms over the years, from Mr Harris spending years of his time driving a bus for the sisters, to helping children at the childcare and residents in aged care, to Mrs Harris dedicating her time with the board of the Sisters of Mercy.
After owning their milk-round for 40 years, Mr Harris was employed at MercyCare’s Wembley site in maintenance for almost 10 years until he retired in 1994.
“I’d be working there during the week and volunteering on the weekend,” he said.
Perth couple Bill and Dot Harris are popular figures at St Joseph’s Orphanage. Photo: Supplied.
Mothers of the couple had lived out their final years at the facility in Wembley; so much of their volunteering was focused there during that time.
After 40 years living in Wembley, Mr and Mrs Harris downsized and moved to North Beach, but they still make the trip to Wembley every Thursday.
The couple said their good-health has allowed them to continue volunteering for so long, building friendships and connections with other volunteers, staffs, the Sisters, and residents.
These days, they spend their time helping out in the early learning centre.
“Bill likes pottering around up there, all the leaves blow around in the playground, and the kids throw sand everywhere, and the kids all like him and like to watch him sweeping and raking,” Mrs Harris said.
“He will mend their toys and anything else that the staff need him to do and there’s always some little one who’s not a having a good day up there, so I take charge of that one, it’s just nice.”
Being modest when talking about their contribution to MercyCare, Mr Harris said they had been taught to think not only of themselves.
“We’ve got a lot out of it, people we’ve met along the way are fantastic, it’s been a great trip, it’s been really, really good,” he said.
“It’s just a good feeling,” Mrs Harris concluded.