Call to volunteersfor Drouin op shop

by Bonnie Collings
If you have some spare time, enjoy sorting and organising and chatting with customers, then volunteering at the Drouin Anglican Church Op Shop might be for you.
Almost in its 30th year of operation, the op shop is seeking more volunteers to lend a much needed hand in the Princes Way retail shop and the Roberts Crt donations warehouse.
Op shop and donations warehouse senior manager Chloe Burke said without more volunteers, she would have to reassess the viability of keeping the op shop open.
"We face the potential of having to close," Chloe said.
Currently, around 30 people volunteer across the warehouse and retail store, but Chloe said they're always facing shortages.
"Probably our biggest problem is that we're short staffed," Chloe said.
"We only currently take donations twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because we're short-staffed.
"The space that we have (for donations) on a Tuesday morning will be empty and by Tuesday afternoon it's (full). We don't have enough people to process it and then make the space to then take more donations."
With more volunteers, Chloe said there would be scope to expand the warehouse opening hours and donation days.
"We'd love to take donations more days, especially Saturdays, because people that work Monday to Friday can't come down to donate," Chloe said.
"We're only open here (at the warehouse) 8:30am to 1pm so we could look at expanding opening hours if we had the volunteers."
While the long-term goal is to get as many new volunteers on board as possible, Chloe said in the short-term, the retail shop in Princes Wy, Drouin, required the most hands on deck.
"The shop is desperate for volunteers because we are facing more shortages there," she said.
"We were almost going to shut on Saturdays at the shop because we were facing a lack of volunteers."
Most of the tasks involved with volunteering at the shop are retail and customer service focused.
"You're mostly serving customers," Chloe said. "If you want to be a bit more task focused at the shop, you can because the shelves need to be stocked from what we have."
"Volunteering at the shop is more strict with hours, it's between our opening hours, 10am to 3pm plus 15 minutes either side for setup."
At the warehouse, there are some customer service tasks involved, but tasks primarily include sorting and processing.
Much like a major department store, Chloe said all the donations were sorted into relevant departments.
"There's clothing, linen, electrical, shoes, bags, everything," she said.
"The warehouse is a lot more flexible, if you can only come in for one or two hours, then the warehouse is where you would need to be."
As well as operating as a regular op shop, the Drouin Anglican Church Op Shop directly supports the local community through community grants - using money from sales made in the op shop."Organisations, charities in the local area can apply for a financial donation," Chloe explained.
"Last year, Drouin Primary School got $500 to start a garden club. They used the grant to pay for garden beds and soil and seeds. We've donated to sporting clubs for equipment and uniforms."
Additionally, Chloe said a lot of the money used for activities at the Drouin Anglican Church including regular alcoholics anonymous meetings are also covered by sales in the op shop.
Recently the op shop sales also helped pay for volunteers to undertake first aid and mental health first aid courses as well as test and tag qualifications.
If the op shop was forced to close due to a lack of volunteers, Chloe said these elements of community support would also have to stop.
"It means that we can't support church activities like alcoholics anonymous," she said. "It also means that we then can't do our community donations, people who come in and ask for help, we might not be able to provide it for them."
Chloe said anyone aged 16 and older can volunteer and encouraged young people to give it a go as a way of expanding their resumes.
"There's not really an age limit as long as we believe that you would be safe and medically fit," she said.
"There's not too much heavy lifting, you might be filling a bag or a box and you have to lift it. If you aren't able to lift it then you can ask someone for help."
Prospective volunteers would first meet Chloe for a chat. "If they're happy and I'm happy, then they'll be sent to the church, to do their working with children and police check. The church pays for it, there's no cost to the volunteer."
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Chloe on 0478 101 246.