On the 4th of December, I began a week of Community Service in my local Jack and Jill Charity shop. I spent the week working on the shop floor selling products and organising the layout of the shop floor. I also helped organise all the donations that we received by cataloguing and pricing different donations.
On the first day, when I walked in, I was surprised to see that Sarah from my class was there as well. We were shown around the shop floor and the basement, where all donations were kept, we were taught how to manage incoming donations, and how to organise all the donations.
We spent most of our first couple of days working in the basement of the shop sorting through the donations, There were so many donations coming in mainly due to how close Christmas was at the time. We were managed by 3 people: Rachel was the shop manager, and Sarah and Sara were also there every now and then to help out Rachel.
On our breaks we usually went to the local coffee shop for half an hour before returning to work. As well as handling donations, we helped organise the layout of the shop floor and the Christmas window display. We mostly laid out he different prizes available in the christmas raffle which were donated from local businesses.
The donations we received ranged from old/new clothes, old/new toys, DVD’s, CD’s, books, etc… Along with the donations that were use-able, we also got some donations that weren’t fit to be used or re-sold, but most of the time we got very generous donations that could be raffled or sold.
One of the main projects Sarah and I worked on was re-organising the shop’s window display for Christmas. Rachel designed a dress resembling a Christmas Tree as the centerpiece, and we laid out different raffle prizes and vouchers around the display to try and attract people into the shop.
The time we spent in the basement mainly consisted of tagging clothes, a lot of clothes. Using the tagging gun was kind of enjoyable, for some odd reason, and the time flew down there. Donations came in at 15 minute intervals at some stages, and other times it could be 2 hours between donations.
Overall working in Jack and Jill for the week was really enjoyable, I never really got bored and the people running the shop were really brilliant and kind people and the work that they do is so important for others. I wouldn’t hesitate volunteering down there for another week.
On the first day, when I walked in, I was surprised to see that Sarah from my class was there as well. We were shown around the shop floor and the basement, where all donations were kept, we were taught how to manage incoming donations, and how to organise all the donations.
We spent most of our first couple of days working in the basement of the shop sorting through the donations, There were so many donations coming in mainly due to how close Christmas was at the time. We were managed by 3 people: Rachel was the shop manager, and Sarah and Sara were also there every now and then to help out Rachel.
On our breaks we usually went to the local coffee shop for half an hour before returning to work. As well as handling donations, we helped organise the layout of the shop floor and the Christmas window display. We mostly laid out he different prizes available in the christmas raffle which were donated from local businesses.
The donations we received ranged from old/new clothes, old/new toys, DVD’s, CD’s, books, etc… Along with the donations that were use-able, we also got some donations that weren’t fit to be used or re-sold, but most of the time we got very generous donations that could be raffled or sold.
One of the main projects Sarah and I worked on was re-organising the shop’s window display for Christmas. Rachel designed a dress resembling a Christmas Tree as the centerpiece, and we laid out different raffle prizes and vouchers around the display to try and attract people into the shop.
The time we spent in the basement mainly consisted of tagging clothes, a lot of clothes. Using the tagging gun was kind of enjoyable, for some odd reason, and the time flew down there. Donations came in at 15 minute intervals at some stages, and other times it could be 2 hours between donations.
Overall working in Jack and Jill for the week was really enjoyable, I never really got bored and the people running the shop were really brilliant and kind people and the work that they do is so important for others. I wouldn’t hesitate volunteering down there for another week.