Thanks to a local youth club and volunteering adults, The Furniture Station raised almost £300 on Saturday 28th January with local friends generously taking a few hours out of their weekend to raise money for the charity by offering to pack customers bags at Hazel Grove Sainsbury’s. Including Hazel Grove Baptist Church’s youth group, almost 20 individuals joined the afternoon for 3 hours in the bag packing afternoon. Well done!
Working in partnership with Recycle for Greater Manchester, The Furniture Station now welcomes collections of unwanted furniture donations at Adswood Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) for re-use to Stockport families and individuals in need.
Last Month, The Furniture Station’s Service Engineer, Phil Edge and Fundraiser Joanne Watson were joined by Councillor Neil Swannick and Councillor Chris Gordon at Adswood Road, to launch the project at the dedicated furniture container, which will now encourage people to re-use for the local community at the Adswood site.
Our 2012 Calendars taken of Stockport Scenery are still on sale; call 0161 483 9010 to order your copy now or email joanne.watson@furniturestation.org.uk . Alternatively calendars are currently available from The Furniture Station Office, Stockport Hat Works and Stockport Gallery at only £5.00 – pop in throughout Januray until the stock lasts!
Sainsbury’s Hazel Grove kindly donated a box full of Christmas wall decorations in time for decorating the Furniture Station and Hazel Grove Baptist Church so that our visitors and clients can expect a warm welcome this December.
The decorations are up and around Hazel Grove Baptist Church during December 2011.
Friday 2nd December saw The Furniture Station hold their 3rd annual dinner at Edgeley Park this Christmas; amongst 140 guests in raising funds and awareness for the charity.
Croftons solicitors, Stockport College, Stockport Homes, Real Camera Co, HGBC, HGRC, The Wellspring, and many more joined the Furniture Station on the evening in contributing to such a warm atmosphere.
Sixteen Strings, a string quartet from HGBC performed sophisticated melodies, with Acoustic Duo; a local acoustic act singing out classic tunes to dessert. The evening ended with a DJ and got the room dancing to the fun evening.
£1,500 was raised on the night; with entertainment that included a spectacular raffle and silent auction.
It was a pleasure to have special guests The Worshipful the Mayor & Mayoress of Stockport , Cllr Les & Jackie Jones attend yet another one of our functions this year.
Everyone seemed to go away with a smile on their face!
A huge thank you go’s out to all those who attended and volunteered on the evening; without you the night would not have been. It was a pleasure to work with Cheshire Conference Centre, Edgeley Park yet again; thank you for your support.
The Furniture Station and Stockport Homes Resettlement Services have teamed up with Housebuilder; Stuart Milne Homes to distribute gifts to local families across Stockport; ensuring children within disadvantaged families has a gift to open on Christmas day.
Stuart Milne Homes selected The Furniture Station as their giving Tree charity; where staff, residents and the local community within the Mill Green development are encouraged to donate gifts, toys and hampers in helping some of the community’s most vulnerable, low income families celebrate the festive holiday.
The Mill Green showroom is located at Strines, near Marple where the gifts are currently being collected Thursday -Monday; 10am – 5pm until 19th December.
A group of students at MBS have been working together for the past several months in putting together a fundraising strategy for The Furniture Station.
The group of 5 put together a set of recommendations in raising awareness for the service; and encouraging further independent fundraising to ensure future stability for the project. The students have now competed the project and Joanne; Fundraiser at the Furniture Station is working closely with the set of recommendations for 2012.
Taking part in Watch your Waste Week with Viridor; November saw The Furniture Station exhibit their services; encouraging residents to come down and chat to their local furniture re-use charity and to find out more about how they can donate their unwanted furniture free of charge.
Set with a living room display, Project Manger Alan Gunnion set up the exhibition at Stockport Indoor Market for the weekend, displaying the charity’s services. Alan Gunnion; Project Manager says ‘ It was a very successful day and we received plenty of positive feedback.
The exhibition enabled us to reach residents within the Stockport community and inform them of our free collection service for their unwanted items.
We managed to spread our message to over 100 people passing by and look forward to receiving calls over the winter so that we can prevent such items form ending up in the landfill; and instead make a house into a home for local families.
The Furniture Station had a busy yet welcoming month with special guests in October; including a pleasant visit from Cheadle MP Mark Hunter to discuss on going developments and visit the newly refurbished warehouse.
Cheadle MP Mark Hunter comments ”It was a pleasure to visit this fantastic local project again, which has gone from strength to strength. Through a successful partnership between Hazel Grove Baptist Church, the local Council and Stockport Homes, many people across the Borough who are in need of furniture and electrical items are helped.”
“I was pleased to hear that, despite these difficult economic times, people from all over the area are still donating items in great numbers.”
Joining Mark Hunter on the afternoon; Belgian volunteers appointed by SMBC on a senior exchange shadowed the work of volunteers here at The Furniture Station for several days; lending a helping hand at several placements around local Stockport charities.
Joanne, Fundraiser comments ‘ It was a very interesting day for the Furniture Station; volunteering is such a great contribution to the community and it was lovely to see such interest in the work we do.’
The Furniture Station has published it’s first advert in the local Saver Passport; that will be circulated to around 20,000 homes throughout Cheadle and Wilmslow before Christmas.
We are currently receiving such a high demand on furniture and electrical items that with the help of Saver Passport we are distributing our free collecting service through local areas in Stockport. Visit the link below for our full add in the saverpossport booklet!
http://saverpassport.com/passport.php?id=11&pg=29
The Furniture Station team!
