When the Uniting Op Shop in Sale opened its doors, it nourished the local community with the opportunity to scour shelves and racks for that perfect trinket, that perfect top, that one glass to reestablish a complete set, all the while returning profits to essential community programs.
Last Thursday, volunteers, staff, and supporters of Sale Uniting Op Shop celebrated 35 years of service, culminating celebrations with a lavish gathering of Uniting staff and all 44 current volunteers.
Virginia Dorning is matriarch among today’s volunteers, having been involved with the Op Shop from the very first day, 35 years ago.
“My husband worked away for two weeks, and I thought I would do something for the community,” Mrs Dorning said.
“I’m a giver; I have always been a giver; that is just me.”
After 35 years of volunteering, the people are what Mrs Dorning loves and continues to love, bringing her back year after year.
“Meeting everyone, there are some beautiful people, and they’ve watched my back; it’s just been amazing,” Mrs Dorning said.
“I take care of them, and they take such good care of me; I just love it.”
Uniting’s Shannon Jewell and Kim Killoran head the day-to-day operations at the Op Shop on Raymond St.
“It definitely has its challenges, but it’s so rewarding,” Ms Jewell said.
“It is fantastic having such a diverse group of people all contributing, bringing something different.”
“Everyone has a different talent and brings something different; that’s probably the best part of it. We have volunteers from 17 years old through to 92, and the best part of the age difference is the experience of different things.”
The Op Shop, which was originally opened at the old Manse in Cunningham St in 1987, before moving to its current location in Raymond St, receives three tonnes a week of donations, from clothes, jewellery, bric-a-brac and china to furniture, books and everything in between.
Executive officer for Uniting, Di Fisher, says the Op Shop is an important part of the Sale and wider Wellington community, with money raised directed back into the community.
“All of the services Uniting run across Gippsland, and the Wellington Shire is our largest service provision area, and the profit from the Op Shop goes directly into service delivery and supports service delivery across all of our programs,” Mrs Fisher said.
“Originally, when the Op Shop opened, it was particularly around our out-of-home care programs for kids in residential care or foster care, but now it is spread across 42 different programs we deliver to the community. Services like foster care, kinship care, programs like integrated family services, emergency relief, homelessness services, the Op Shop supports all of them,” she said.
The Uniting Op Shop in Sale is the only agency-run Op Shop in Gippsland.
“Last year, the shop expanded to the premises next door, and we’ve just purchased the whole site with views to doing it up,” Mrs Fisher said.
“There is a grand plan; everything is on the drawing board, we just haven’t actually had those conversations yet, but definitely, the idea is to integrate more because, for a lot of people who require service, this is a way we might find out about that.”
Sale’s Uniting Op Shop depends on volunteers.
“The role volunteers play, and the support volunteers also receive, is one of the things I’d really like to highlight,” Mrs Fisher said.
“The Op Shop volunteers provide significant support to us, and it is a mutually beneficial relationship in that Shan and Kim also provide amazing support to the volunteers and are like their extended family and help them with the functioning of everyday life.”
If you want to volunteer at the Uniting Op Shop, phone Kim or Shannon on 5144 2433.
