Vinnies calls for volunteers — Bourke’s Vinnies store needs volunteers

Coral Gosner, Vanessa Cameron, Shirley Johnston and Irene Podobnik are looking forward to more volunteers joining the team at Vinnies in Bourke. Photo TWH

Volunteers Caroline Dunlop and Pat Mann in the engine room at Vinnies - where all the sorting, washing and distribution takes place. Photo TWH

With only five regular volunteers operating the store, the workload is considerable – and the call has gone out for some more helpers.

Pat Mann is a former manager at the store but is now a regular volunteer and said the work was personally rewarding and valuable to the community.

“We need whoever is available – people to do the sorting and someone interested in doing the counter and the till.

“The sorters go through the clothes that we get donated, hang the good ones, anything to be washed is kept separate and anything that needs to get sent away is bagged ready for that.

“To work on the till and the counter you don’t need experience – we can show you how to do that.

“Volunteers do need a police check and a Working with Children clearance and Vinnies pays for that,” Pat said.

The Vinnies store currently opens from 10am to 1pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday but Pat said if there were more volunteers, it could trade five or more days a week.

“All up, if we could get five or six more volunteers that would be very helpful,” she said.

“There’s generally four working a day and instead of working every day as we are doing right now, we could have people working only one or two days a week.

“At the moment, every day we’re open we have the same people on.

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