IN AUGUST 1952 Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Parish in Toowoomba formed a St Vincent de Paul conference and Jim Hayes dutifully joined up.

Sixty years on, Mr Hayes still attends weekly meetings as secretary of his St Vincent de Paul branch.

"I started off at Lourdes but when we moved I joined the St Patrick's Parish conference," Mr Hayes said.

St Vinnies branches help support the poor and needy in the community, handing out food vouchers and clothing or anything else they can get their hands on that will help.

"In old days our standard food order was $3.50, now it's a $100 voucher," Mr Hayes explained.

"There is a high demand for charities these days.

"We have 14 members at St Pat's but at one stage we were down to just three members."

In the early days, St Vincent de Paul volunteers used to roll up newspapers, which were then sold to butchers and fish and chip shops and packing companies to raise funds to support the then head office in Russell St.

These days the parish branches rely on the Vinnies stores and the annual Christmas appeal to fund their valued charity work.

Once a saddler by trade, Mr Hayes worked as an electrical labourer for Donaldsons Electrics while he and wife Gloria reared their three children.

The St Vincent de Paul Society also played a major part in bringing the happy couple together.

"When we moved to Toowoomba from the country my father didn't have a job," Mrs Hayes explained.

"We got a visit at home from St Vincent de Paul and Jim was one of the volunteers who came to help us."

The rest, as they say, is history.

Mr Hayes said volunteer work with St Vincent de Paul was very rewarding.

"You get to meet a lot of people but you meet a lot of sad cases too," he said.