Over more than thirty years ago, when David was 15 and sleeping rough, a Salvation Army Officer named Major Brendan Nottle helped him off the street and into a youth hostel.
It was a small act of kindness that turned into the reason why David still walks through the same doors at the Magpie Nest Café.
A place that's never really changed
In 2014, the wraparound service hub relaunched as what we know today as the Magpie Nest Café, following a partnership between the Collingwood Football Club and the Salvation Army’s Project 614.
Today, the Magpie Nest Café is a familiar part of the community with espresso machines, the art classes, an annual Footy Finals Lunch and the volunteers who greet people by name.
Support the café providing more than 10,000 meals to people experiencing homelessness every month.
But for David, the place itself has never really changed.
"I've been coming to the Magpie Nest for, I don't know, the last 30, 40 years," he said.
"It wasn't known as the Magpie Nest back then. And now I come here - not all the time, but when I do, I always chat to the incredible staff."
The trouble that put him on the street as a teenager started at home, with a stepfather he describes as someone who was 'quick to turn nasty.' He didn't dwell on it. Instead, he found a valuable life lesson from something his mother said that has stayed with him.
It's become his personal mantra.
David doesn't judge the people he meets, whether they are inside the Café or out of it.
If someone's doing it tough, he'll hand over a few dollars for a coffee, walk them down to the food vans or point them toward the Café's living room service. He's not interested in where someone's been. He's interested in where they're at right now and what they're going through.
Every donation helps the Magpie Nest Café keep its doors open.
Earlier this year, Channel 7's breakfast television program 'Sunrise' was filmed at the Café to celebrate Magpie Nest at the 'G, Collingwood's major fundraising event in Round 15.
David was presented with a Collingwood guernsey by AFL players Jamie Elliott and Darcy Moore.
Crossing the first hurdle
When you ask David what you’d tell someone who was nervous about walking into the Café for the first time, his answer comes without hesitation.
"Once you cross that first hurdle, it's pretty easy," he said.
"You'll want to start coming back and back and eventually you'll get into a routine."
What keeps him coming back isn't just the coffee or the services, though he's quick to credit both, it's the volunteers who show up with no obligation to and the sense that he's a part of the community.
“They don't have to come here, but they do.”
Forty years on from that first meeting on the street with Major Nottle, David tries to play a similar role for those who need it most and are living rough.
He steers newcomers toward help, he cracks jokes with the staff and makes sure no one walks in feeling like they don't belong.
The Magpie Nest Café might have had a few names over the years, but the sense of community and belonging it provides to those who need it most remains unchanged.
A NEST FOR ALL | The Collingwood Football Club Community Foundation supports those in our community who are most vulnerable and isolated.
