A quiet man who didn’t say much shocked the community kitchen where he had volunteered once a week for a decade when he left his home after he died.
Malcolm ‘Mal’ Mawhinney bequeathed his understated but perfectly situated Clovelly home in Sydney to Reverend Bill Crew’s Exodus Foundation after he died.
Rev Crews was shocked when friends of Mr. Mawhinney told him that he had donated the house and decided to sell it to help support the long kitchen for the poor and needy.
The house was in a dilapidated and dilapidated condition at the time of Mr.
All money from the sale will be reinvested in the kitchen, for which Rev.
Reverend Bill Crews knew Malcolm ‘Mal’ Mawhinney as a volunteer at his Exodus Foundation for the past decade, but didn’t know much about the reclusive character.
When Mr. Mawhinney died, his friends told Rev Crews he had donated his $4.5 million home in Clovelly, Sydney, to help maintain the charity’s kitchen.
Mr. Crews did not know much about Mr. A current issue.
“You never knew how much he earned, where he came from or what he did… He didn’t look too different from many of our guests, so he was just one of us,” he said.
Mr Mawhinney had to stop volunteering in the kitchen after suffering a stroke before he died in 2021 aged 75.
His friends first contacted the Reverend because his last wish was for his ashes to be scattered at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
After agreeing to help with that request, they began to tell him more about their late friend.
“They said he’s going to give you his house, but it’s all over, but it didn’t really click,” Rev Crews said.
Mr Mawhinney had been a reclusive householder all the time Rev Crews had known him, and one of his favorite hobbies was reading in the back room of his house.
An image from Google Street View even captured him resting on the large glass door at the back of his house while reading in the sun.
When Rev Crews got in touch with Tony Andreacchio of Raine and Horne House Auctions, the two worked to sell the property which Mr Mawhinney’s friends said was ‘kept together with pigeons’.
“He lived, let’s say, very badly (but) what he’s done for this church is incredible because Bill was saying he was starting to run out of food and everything,” Mr. Andreacchio said.
The day the house went up for auction Rev Crews was worried it might not sell because not many people showed up, but as soon as the bids arrived, they started pouring in.
‘Mal’ Mawhinney was a reclusive native who didn’t share much about himself
An image from Google Street View even captured him sitting in the sunlit back room of his home reading
Starting with a bid of $3 million, the buyers became more excited about the bid when they heard that the proceeds would go to Rev Crews.
After stalling between the initial bid and $3.5 million, the bids didn’t stop until they finally settled on $4.5 million.
Proceeds from the auction are expected to feed hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the Exodus Foundation for support.
The Rev Crew Kitchen feeds more than 600,000 people who are vulnerable or homeless each year.
When asked what would be the legacy of Mr.
A woman in her 60s came to the kitchen after Mr Mawhinney had died, who needed help because she had lost her job and was caring for a disabled child, Rev Crews recalled.
“She comes here for help and we are able to help her, that’s how he will be remembered,” he said.
“He will be remembered through this woman, knowing that she may survive a little longer.”
Rev Crew’s Exodus Foundation feeds more than 600,000 vulnerable people each year and its continued success will be Mr Mawhinney’s lasting legacy, he said.
(tagsTranslate) daily mail(s) news(s) Sydney