Feeding up to 12,000 tourists as a ‘between meal’ break was made possible by a local committee and teams of community volunteers who stepped forward to give their time and support freely for the benefit of their clubs and organisations.

Co-ordinated by the Catholic Days in Dioceses (DID), the organisation verbally guaranteed the purchase of 12000 snack bags to local organisers.

Among the tourists visiting Holbrook on Sunday were members of the Focolare Movement, Youth for a United World. They had travelled from New Zealand, Canada, the USA, India, the Philippines as well as Australian cities of Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Asked to present a concert at the Royal Hall of Industry in Sydney on July 18, members of the Focolare Movement had met in Melbourne to prepare for the concert a week before attending World Youth Day.

“Our four hour presentation of music, song, dance, and experiences are based on the golden rule found in all major religions,” said Vanessa Borg, a New Zealander. There was a Hindu from India and a Moslem from the Philippines in their group.

Embraced by the Catholic Church, members of the group are committed to dialogue of working together on the basis of shared universal values for peace and justice; and for brotherhood and sisterhood in the human family.

On a pilgrimage with tens of thousands of young people from all over the world, they were able to reflect and light a candle pressed into a bed of sand in the prayer ‘shed’ at Holbrook.

Catering has been a challenge, adapting rostered volunteers to changing numbers of pilgrims and times of arrival,” local co-ordinators Gail Chynoweth and Judy Wettenhall said at the weekend.

More than 90 volunteers worked in teams to pre-pack snack bags from Wednesday onwards last week.

After a slow start on Saturday and some increased numbers on Sunday, 40 buses arrived overnight on Sunday and the early hours of Monday and 89 buses were scheduled for Monday between 10am and 5.30 am Tuesday morning.