Even children can make the world a better place – just ask 11-year-old Hoppers Crossing resident Taylor, who has a passion for helping homeless people.
On Friday nights, Taylor helps out at The Salvation Army Wyndham City’s mobile kitchen, which provides free meals at the Werribee train station.
“I just like making people happy, such as helping people who are poor be able to eat a meal,” Taylor said.
Taylor, who is in grade 5, said his desire to help homeless people was born when he saw a movie about people stranded beside a road.
“Then, the next time I went to the city, I saw a homeless person and I wanted to help them,” he said.
While on a family holiday in the United States last year, Taylor saw many people living on the streets, and would ask his mother to buy them meals. One deaf man he gave food to signed “thank you”, which Taylor’s grandmother – who understands sign language – translated for him.
Taylor said that he also loved archery, taking part in the Relay for Life and helping animals.
He said that he would like to work with animals, with homeless people or as a policeman with a sniffer dog when he grows up.
A desire to help others runs in Taylor’s family – his mother, Julie Toner, was named Wyndham’s Citizen of the Year in 2016, in recognition of her extensive fundraising and volunteer work.
