16 February 2010
Volunteers clock up 130 years service
A team of 29 volunteers from St Peter’s Hospice in Westbury on Trym have clocked up over 130 years voluntary service at the shop since it opened its doors in June 1998.
The shop in Canford Lane held an event this week to thank all the current volunteers for their outstanding contribution to the charity and presented them with their certificates and commemorative badges.
Mandi Gibbs, Manager of the shop (pictured) said: “On behalf of myself and my staff at Canford Lane and St Peter’s Hospice I would like to thank all of our wonderful volunteers who so willingly give up their free time to work in the shop. We have a huge age range from our 17 year old volunteers on a Saturday to our oldest volunteer who is 92. They do a variety of tasks including welcoming customers, receiving donations, steaming the clothing, preparing stock, putting it on the shop floor and serving at the till. We really couldn’t manage without them”
Andrew Hufford, Commercial Director at St Peter’s Hospice said: “in the past twelve years of trading this shop has managed to raise over £600,000 which has been used for patient care at the Hospice. We really couldn’t have run the shop so effectively or profitably without our managers and their fantastic team of loyal volunteers, they make a huge difference to how much money we can raise for the Hospice and we can’t thank them enough”
St Peter’s Hospice shops are run by skilled retail professionals and supported by an army of over 900 volunteers.
Anne Browning (pictured) who is the longest serving volunteer in the St Peter’s Hospice shops chain said: “I love working as a volunteer and joined the charity when they opened the first Hospice shop in Knowle in 1981. I spent 22 years there and then 5 years ago decided to move closer to home and have been at Westbury on Trym ever since. Being a volunteer enables you give something back to a local charity and the local community. It is so interesting to meet all the different types of people who come into the shop and see what they buy, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do!”
St.Peter’s Hospice is Bristol’s largest charity retailer and the UK’s most successful hospice retailer with 49 shops in Bristol, North Somerset and South Glos. Shops raise in excess of £1.5 million a year which goes towards patient care at Bristol’s only adult hospice.
