Volunteers who give up their time to work in the city's three Oxfam shops have received the charity's grateful thanks.
Oxfam Chequer Street, Oxfam Hatfield Road and the Oxfam Bookshop on Catherine Street have been celebrating the difference volunteers make to their organisation during this year’s national Volunteers’ Week, which runs from June 1-12.
Oxfam relies on thousands of volunteers to run its shops, doing a variety of jobs such as manning the tills, sorting through donations, window dressing, updating social media and listing items for sale online.
Chequer Street deputy manager Chloe said: “Without our volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to open. They make a huge difference, and in return, we make sure that every volunteer has an enjoyable time and gets what they want out of the experience. By putting on this event we want to celebrate the contribution they make. We can’t thank them enough for all the time that they dedicate to a good cause.”
The three Oxfam shops in St Albans have thanked and recognised the tremendous contribution made by their teams.
Chequer Street gave a shout out to Roy, their homewares and watch expert, who has been volunteering twice a week for 14 years. His dedication to watches in particular, restoring them to their former glory and replacing them with new batteries without fail, has raised thousands of pounds alone for Oxfam.
Hatfield Road gave special mention to Vera, who started volunteering for Oxfam in 1972 – 50 years ago! She continues to show up weekly to price jewellery and keep the store open, and is a tremendously warm and reliable individual. Her commitment to Hatfield Road is just remarkable, and she is certainly one of the longest serving volunteers for Oxfam throughout the country.
And finally, Catherine Street would like to shout out to the whole team, who went above and beyond throughout the pandemic and in the last few months to keep open. This includes running the Online shop throughout lockdown, maintaining collections of book banks, and ensuring that donations were processed when the store was inundated at the end of the lockdowns. Their self-sufficiency and dedication enabled the store to generate precious funds for Oxfam’s work abroad, in what has been a deeply challenging period for everyone.
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