22 Jun 09: Rags to Riches

22nd June 2009

How your old and unwanted belongings can make a huge difference to a local children’s charity…

In March this year a new charity shop opened on Halstead High Street, raising money for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH). The shop has had a successful first few months, with great support from the local people of Halstead and the surrounding villages.

Takings from the shop are used by EACH, who run the children’s hospice at Milton, to provide care and support for local life-threatened children and their families. As Rachel Wright, Marketing and Communications Assistant for the charity explains "The majority of EACH’s costs are not for specialist equipment but for delivering the one-to-one nursing and supportive care so vital to the children, young people and their families. At EACH we rely on public support for the vast majority of our required income of £5.5million a year – which means we have to raise nearly £11,500 a day! Our shops are a vital part of our fundraising."

Contrary to popular opinion, donations don’t have to have designer labels to make a difference. EACH can take pretty much anything at their High Street shop, from battered old books to chipped china. As Shop Manager Sonya explains "If anything is unsuitable for sale in our shops we can almost always recycle it, which is great for the environment and also raises us money. Old books with pages falling out, torn clothes and cracked plates are all welcome! We have PAT testing facilities for electrical equipment, and anything that doesn’t work properly can be taken apart and recycled. So please don’t feel that your unwanted items have to be in perfect condition – we’ll take pretty much anything!"

The charity can also arrange for items to be collected, including large or bulky goods such as furniture.

Of course the charity doesn’t wish to discourage people from bringing in designer goods. As Rachel says "If your wardrobe is full of unwanted Prada handbags and Gucci dresses then by all means bring them in! But please don’t feel that donations have to be perfect quality. If you don’t want it, we can almost certainly use it, and raise vital funds to help local life-threatened children and their families."

A comprehensive list of items that EACH can accept can be found here. To arrange for donations to be collected please call Karen at the charity’s Central Distribution Centre: 01842 821620.