Choose Charity Shops Week
14 May 2012
The Mayor of Dudley, Councillor Michael Evans, visited Cats Protection’s Stourbridge shop on Monday 14 May as part of a national campaign to generate more donations for charity shops.
The Choose Charity Shops campaign, led by the Charity Retail Association, is being supported by the shop, which raises funds to help the cat charity find homes for unwanted cats in Stourbridge and surrounding areas. The Mayor, and his consort Sue Greenaway, were at the shop from 10.30am to 11.30am accepting items brought in by members of the public.
Charity shop popularity is at an all-time high, and charity shops raise over £200 million every year for a huge range of charitable causes. They provide 180,000 volunteering opportunities and 17,000 jobs nationwide. In addition, they re-use and recycle whatever they can, reducing UK carbon emissions by approximately 3.7 million tonnes every year.
However, they thrive on donations of unwanted items and many shops are facing real difficulties in getting donations through the door. The majority of people in the UK have unwanted items of clothing in their wardrobes that they aren’t using, let alone other household items such as toys or bric-a-brac, that could be put to use by charities.
Rob Hall, co-ordinator of Cats Protection’s Stourbridge branch said: “We are very grateful to the Mayor and his consort for visiting us today to appeal for, and receive, donations of items. These are desperately needed and selling them will raise more money towards our cat welfare work. Seventy four pence in every pound donated to Cats Protection goes directly towards helping unwanted cats, so we are a cause well worth supporting.”
Mayor Councillor Michael Evans said: “I’d urge local people to donate unwanted items or clean second hand goods to the shop as part of the Choose Charity Shops campaign. The Cats Protection branch in Stourbridge provides an essential adoption service for unwanted cats and donating items will help them to continue and hopefully expand their vital cat welfare work.”
This week nearly 6,000 charity shops in the UK are coming together to ask members of the public to make a donation to a charity shop in their area and pledge to donate to charity shops for the coming year.
Events are taking place across the country to support the campaign. Ministers and MPs, including Eric Pickles, Theresa May, Danny Alexander and Hilary Benn are taking part and making a donation to their local charity shop – and charities are organising events locally to encourage more members of the public to donate.
Warren Alexander, Chief Executive of the Charity Retail Association, said: ‘Charity shops simply can’t survive without donations of items from the public to sell, and the thousands of charity shops taking part in this week’s campaign shows how big an issue this is. Donating items to a charity shop is a great way to support a good cause when people have less money to give by way of cash donations. This week, charities across the country are joining forces to ask the British public to have that clear out and take unwanted items down to their local charity shop.”