The shop boasts a much bigger space for shoppers to grab more bargains, with more stock on offer for their fantastic customers, but since the move to the front of the North Point shopping centre the hospice shop has struggled to gain volunteers to help keep the shop open.
Without volunteers to sort through donations and replenish them on the shop floor, the shop cannot raise as much as it could to go towards providing expert care for local people with progressive life-limiting diseases and their families. Dove House is a charity, their care is free for patients and their loved ones but not free to provide, so they greatly need volunteers to ensure the shop is bringing in as many funds as possible.
Janine Drury, Area Manager at Dove House Hospice, had this to say: “We rely on volunteers to be able to keep our doors open and without them we really cannot raise the money needed to support the hospice, which is what our shops are for. Volunteering is a great experience and we hear from many of the volunteers who join us in other shops how great it is and how valuable it is for them in many different ways. We desperately need people at our North Point shop and would encourage anyone who could even just give us a couple of hours of their time to give it a try.”
Jayne, a volunteer at Dove House, had this to say: “I love being part of Dove House and am proud of our shops. The hospice charity shops are a brilliant place to volunteer. For me, the best bit about volunteering is feeling useful in a supportive and friendly team. If I had to describe my volunteering journey at Dove House in three words, they would be satisfying, interesting, and enjoyable. I love it when we have a day with better than normal takings. The buzz in the team with such a visible reward for hard work is brilliant. Volunteering gives me purpose, working with and meeting a variety of people, learning new things, giving back to society, and having some structure to a week is very rewarding.”
The shop is open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sundays 10am to 4pm and looking for volunteers to join the team throughout these times.
To get in touch about volunteering, please visit www.dovehouse.org.uk/volunteer, call 01482 785747, email volunteers@dovehouse.org.uk, or pop into the shop and chat to the team.