Relate Mid & East Surrey held the official reopening of their newly refurbished charity shop in Woodhatch, Reigate in October. The refurbishment project has been completed with the aim to improve the working environment for the incredible team of volunteers, enhance the shopping experience for customers and generate increased income to support more people in the community through their counselling services.
The event celebrated all of the hard work of many volunteers who gave so much time, energy and enthusiasm to the planning, fundraising and implementing of this project. Volunteers included the shop staff, some of whom have been volunteering with Relate Mid & East Surrey for over 30 years, trustees and the volunteer fundraiser. Also in attendance were a number of customers and funders. The shop is very fortunate to have a very loyal customer base, one of which shared “It is lovely, bright and well-lit with so much more space, and so much better now it is freshly painted. The staff are still the same and very friendly, and prices have not gone up which is great to see.”
Abi Stokes, CEO of Relate Mid and East Surrey said “Relate Mid & East Surrey offer counselling services to couples, individuals, young people and families during difficult times. We believe that everyone should have access to this kind of support and this shop enables us to do that. As this shop is run solely by a team of amazing volunteers all the income, minus rent and bills goes directly to our local counselling centres in Reigate & Epsom to enable us to offer subsidised and affordable counselling to those in our local area. We are so pleased with the new look and layout and it is much more welcoming for customers. Thank you so much to all of our volunteers and funders who made this project happen”.
The refurbishment project caught the attention of several funders including Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and the Mortgage Advice Bureau who generously donated. Kate Fuller from Mortgage Advice Bureau was delighted to be able to attend the event and said “It is great to see how it has all come together and the work that has taken place is amazing. We wanted our donation to help towards making a difference and it is lovely to see.”
Relate Mid and East Surrey would like to thank every individual who donated. Every single £1 donated was helped to get this amazing project completed. They would also like to thank their customers for their ongoing donations and support.
