Making a difference

I'M always up for a challenge, so when I was asked by Help The Aged to take a day out of the office and volunteer at one of their charity shops for Make a Difference Day, I jumped at the chance.

As a partner of Make a Difference Day, or Madd, Help the Aged has focused this year's activity on the volunteers who staff the charity's shops in an effort to encourage more people to take time out to aid their local community.

I have never done any sort of volunteer work before, pretty much because I never seem to have any free time on my hands, but I was really looking forward to my day in the Lymington branch of Help The Aged, one of the town's newest charity shops.

What I was surprised, and I must say shocked to discover, was that this charity shop is running dangerously low on help from willing hands, with just five regular volunteers to assist the full-time staff.

Like many other charity shops that rely on those few hours of help from volunteers, some of the Help The Aged shops are suffering as a result of low numbers.

So I was more than happy to swap my computer and notebook for a day to help out and see just what a charity shop volunteer does on a daily basis.

Feeling a little nervous, I introduced myself to Lymington store branch manager Alison Headington, and was duly welcomed by other volunteers in the shop who were busy sorting through donated goods in the back room. Bright and airy, this store is used for training purposes across the county, and is just four years old.

"We are the youngest charity shop on the High Street, but we've also got the fewest volunteers. For some reason, the more established charity shops in the town have better luck at snaring volunteers," Alison told me.

I found that rather odd - surely those that wanted to help shouldn't be that choosy at who they wanted to help? But it made me even keener to do my bit for the charity in the short time I had with them.

My first job was helping to sort through the donations. On most days, Lymington receives about 15 bags of donated goods from customers, about 60 bags a week collected door-to-door and a further five-ten bags of stock transferred from other Help The Aged shops in the area - which makes for a lot of sorting.

I am nosey by admission, so I was very excited to be able to dig through bags of unknown treasures.

It felt like Christmas had come early as I emptied sack after sack of clothes on the floor.

It's quite amazing what people donate to charity shops - everything from roller skates to hairnets, wedding dresses and anoraks to jigsaw puzzles and antique jewellery.

But unfortunately, some folk utilize the free charity sacks that drop through their letter box for rather less savoury uses. Dirty nappies, used contraceptives and syringes are just some of the items that volunteers have been faced with, making caution a priority when opening those overflowing bags.

For safety reasons, no volunteer is allowed to pull items from a donated bag - just in case they are injured in the process.

Thankfully, I came across nothing more dangerous than a particularly ugly polyester dress, and I was really beginning to enjoy my new job.

Next came the sorting and pricing. Alison is very particular about what goes on the rails of the store, and sub-standard items are relegated to the ragbag.

These are collected on a weekly basis by other volunteers, and sold on to other traders, making more money for the cause.

The good clothing is then steamed and priced according to its quality before being taken to the shop floor to be sold. The shop has a strict turnaround policy of a fortnight on the rails, purely because of the amount of stock that passes through.

At any one time, there are approximately 200 bags of goods waiting to be sorted, steamed, hung and priced, and there simply isn't room to keep everything - or for that matter, enough people to make sure that these goods make it to the shop floor.

So the team at the Lymington branch really do have their work cut out.

It takes all sorts of people to make a store like this work. Often misrepresented as dusty old shops manned by similarly dusty staff, the charity shop operates just like every other business on the high street. With a comprehensive management structure, sales strategy and targets to meet, they are a million miles away from the outdated image of shops that are run as something of a hobby.

Manager Alison often gets some strange looks when she tells people she runs a charity shop.

"They think that you have to be well-past retirement age to do my job, and that's rubbish," she explained.

If they knew that Alison rode a Harley Davidson motorbike and used to work as a special constable, I'm sure she'd get even stranger looks from these people.

But that is just one of the many misconceptions society has about charity shops.

People always expect them to smell of mothballs and to be run by old ladies who sit around knitting and drinking tea.

But I can vouch that despite some frequent tea drinking, this store was far from smelly and I didn't catch one of the friendly staff knitting to pass the time.

After pricing and sorting, I was assigned to dress the window for the business-wear promotion the following week. I was thrilled - it's something I've always wanted to do, and set about choosing suits and accessories to display.

These promotions change on a regular basis, and Alison and her team are always looking out for garments ready for promotions months in advance.

Rather proud of my handiwork, I looked at my watch to see what the time was - and was amazed to see that it was already 3pm. I don't think I had ever had so much fun working for nothing.

Over to the counter for some experience on the till before some more sorting and steaming, the day was simply whizzing by, and I was having a brilliant time.

Besides the fact that I got to be as nosey as I liked and was learning new skills, I was giving something back to my community - something that I don't feel many of us, spend enough time doing.

I enjoyed myself so much, that I've signed up to become a regular Help The Aged volunteer, and spent the afternoon at the Lymington shop last Saturday.

I am aiming to do one day a month, which doesn't seem a great deal, but its just what the charity needs. In my own small way, I'm making a difference - and that's worth more than a day's pay in my book.

If you would like to become a volunteer at the Lymington Help The Aged shop call Alison Headington on 01590 688985.

FACTFILE: MAKING A DIFFERNCE DAY

Community Service Volunteers (CSV) launched Make a Difference Day in 1996 to encourage everyone to get involved in their communities and to introduce new people to volunteering.

Make a Difference Day is held on the last Saturday of October each year, and is the UK's biggest day of volunteering action, funded by Barclays Community Investment Programme.

Last year 50,000 people from all over the UK got involved in 2,500 activities, ranging from creating a skateboard park and renovating a community arts centre to giving blood and beach cleaning.

This year is set to be even bigger, with 3,000 activities already registered and an estimated 50,000 volunteers.

To register your activity, or take part in a project near you call the Madd hotline on 0800 284 533, or visit www.csv.org.uk