Volunteers and supporters celebrate 50 years of Lee-on-the-Solent Oxfam shop

CHARITY supporters gathered at a favourite seafront shop to celebrate its 50th birthday.
Belinda Dickins
By Belinda Dickins
Published 30th Aug 2019, 17:43 BST
Updated 2nd Sep 2019, 10:55 BST
Lee-on-the-Solent Oxfam 50 years. (L-R) Volunteer Garrie Williams, Store manager Steph Hillier, volunteer Constance Williams Picture: Duncan ShepherdLee-on-the-Solent Oxfam 50 years. (L-R) Volunteer Garrie Williams, Store manager Steph Hillier, volunteer Constance Williams Picture: Duncan Shepherd
Lee-on-the-Solent Oxfam 50 years. (L-R) Volunteer Garrie Williams, Store manager Steph Hillier, volunteer Constance Williams Picture: Duncan Shepherd

A party at Lee-on-the-Solent Oxfam marked 50 years since the store opened its doors to the public, and saw supporters and volunteers turn out to join in.

Some of the previous volunteers who used to work in the shop went down to say hello and enjoy some tea and cake at the event.

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Steph Hillier, shop manager, said: ‘Without the volunteers we’d be nothing, we couldn’t function without volunteers.

Lee-on-the-Solent Oxfam 50 years. (L-R) Volunteer Garrie Williams with visitor/customer Carol Martin visiting Lee-on-the-Solent from Rugby Picture: Duncan ShepherdLee-on-the-Solent Oxfam 50 years. (L-R) Volunteer Garrie Williams with visitor/customer Carol Martin visiting Lee-on-the-Solent from Rugby Picture: Duncan Shepherd
Lee-on-the-Solent Oxfam 50 years. (L-R) Volunteer Garrie Williams with visitor/customer Carol Martin visiting Lee-on-the-Solent from Rugby Picture: Duncan Shepherd

‘We always need volunteers so if anyone wants to help out, feel free to pop along.’

August has been a month of birthday celebrations for the shop in Pier Street and many of its volunteers from across the years paid tribute to five decades of serving the community.

Steph said: ‘We have very loyal customers in Lee-on-the-Solent, they come in every couple of days to see what we’ve got. This is a real community shop.’

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Staff and customers have been creating a memory quilt out of material which could not be used or sold in the shop, to create a piece of memorabilia marking the occasion.

Lee-on-the-Solent Oxfam 50 years. (L-R) regular customer/supporter Maureen Mackey with volunteer Constance Williams Picture: Duncan ShepherdLee-on-the-Solent Oxfam 50 years. (L-R) regular customer/supporter Maureen Mackey with volunteer Constance Williams Picture: Duncan Shepherd
Lee-on-the-Solent Oxfam 50 years. (L-R) regular customer/supporter Maureen Mackey with volunteer Constance Williams Picture: Duncan Shepherd

Throughout the month, various sections of the shop were highlighted and items put on sale to encourage customers to buy from the wide variety on sale.

The Oxfam shop in Fareham also recently celebrated its 50th birthday, with plenty of support in the area for the charity.

This event leads the shop onto Second Hand September as Oxfam is encouraging shoppers to pledge not to buy new clothes for a whole month.

Related topics:VolunteersLee-on-the-SolentFareham

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