With more people shopping in charity shops each year, have you ever wondered what it would be like to work as a volunteer in one? We took the opportunity to have a chat with Susie Godfrey, Store Manager of Sobell House Hospice shop at 4 King’s Walk in Wantage to find out.
“We currently have ten volunteers and are flexible on whatever time they can offer. I have one volunteer who does up to four hours a day, three times a week. Another does two hours twice a month. Most of our volunteering team, however, work, between three and four hours once a week.”
“Our volunteers do not need to have had previous retail experience. We have many tasks that need doing on a daily basis so there is usually something for everyone. Serving customers, accepting donations, sorting donations, labelling, pricing, and displaying items on the shop floor. We also do research into the more expensive items that we have donated as they may go to auction or be listed on our eBay site.”
There is, however, nothing like hearing from the volunteers who help Susie run the store.
Sue has been volunteering at the Sobell House Hospice shop in Wantage for six months. “My family have had experience of Sobell House, and the care given by the team there. Volunteering in the Wantage shop is an opportunity to give back to the charity in a different way and also be involved in the local community. It is a friendly atmosphere, and no two days are the same. It is a busy and varied role but a very enjoyable way to fill my time now that I am retired.”
Steph has been a volunteer for two years. “Once I had retired, I was looking for something to keep me busy and where I could be productive in what I was doing. Having worked in a shop before, Sobell Wantage was a place where I would utilise my skills in a good way. The friendly atmosphere and the team all working together to achieve the same goal, helping to fund Sobell House Hospice is very rewarding.”
As we head into the New Year, if you have unwanted Christmas gifts you would like to donate, they would be gratefully received. Remember too you may also be able to find suitable gifts for Valentine’s Day.
If you would like to support Sobell House Hospice store in Wantage, which is one of nine across the county, there are various ways you can:
- If you run a business locally, please display one of our upcoming events posters in your windows and put information out on your social media. Just give the store a call on 01235 768969 or email wantage.shop@sobellhospice.orgto arrange.
- All donations help raise essential funds to help the charity so if you’re feeling like a seasonal sort out before the presents come into the house, they take donations daily. A great way to collect donations is getting together with your friends or work colleagues and agreeing on a number of items that each person will donate, then bring them all into the shop!
- Donate your time as a volunteer as we really could do with more people being part of the team. Please contact Susie or call into and speak to her.
Every pound raised can help make a difference to the services the Hospice can provide. Just £13 can enable a Sobell Companion volunteer to travel to a patient’s home to provide much needed support and companionship. £190 will provide a two-hour bereavement café session helping to connect people who have lost a loved one with other people who have gone through a similar experience, enabling them to make new friends. It costs £324 to supply a month’s worth of specialist drugs to ease a palliative care patient’s pain and discomfort and £12,708 to fund our ward for just 24 hours providing palliative care for 18 patients. If donors are UK taxpayers, they are then eligible to Gift Aid their items which are donated, this enables Sobell House Hospice to claim 25p for every £1 donated.
The Wantage store is open Monday to Saturday inclusive from 9.30am until 5pm.
