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The Welcome Organisation's would like to say a huge thanks to our longest serving volunteer Sister Olive Cooney who has been with the charity for ten years this August.
Welcome CEO Sandra Moore presented Sr Olive with a bouquet in acknowledgement of her invaluable support for the charity. Sr Olive has been volunteering in the Welcome Drop-in Centre every Wednesday since 2009.
A member of the Dominican Covent on the Falls Road, Sr Olive moved to Belfast in 1964 where she took up position as a home economics teacher at St Mary's College.
She was former superior sister at Aquinas Hall at Queen's University, Belfast providing support and assistance for students in residence at the university and former chaplain at Musgrave Park Hospital, Belfast offering friendship, counselling and consolation to patients of all denominations,
One of eight children born in Co Westmeath and brought up on a farm, Sr Olive followed a charitable life after her mother let a homeless man sleep in their barn for an evening and gave him porridge. Olive had no porridge that morning.
"I may have gone hungry for one morning, but it taught me a lesson for a lifetime. It was at that moment that I realised it was my duty to be charitable and to help others, just like my parents had always done. Mother taught me that the comforts we take for granted everyday are far more than many people can dream of and that giving to the needy is one of our most important duties in life."
Thank you for everything Sr Olive!
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