By ROMAN KULKEWYCZ
THIS month the Bunyip Community Shop has reached a milestone of 15 years of service to the community.
Over those years approximately $320,000 of the profits made have been given back to local organsiations through grants for the benefit of the whole district.
Behind the tiny shopfront in High Street there is a hive of activity – a room for sorting and pricing, another room for displaying the saleable goods. Other areas are set aside for various purposes. It’s a busy, happy place.
Its president/secretary is Sue Beattie, a bubbly effervescent, caring and compassionate Bunyip local, and just the right person for this job.
The shop is run entirely by approximately 30 volunteers who each work four-hour shifts in pairs. The shop is open Monday – Friday 9.30am to 4.30pm, Saturday 9.30am to 12.30 pm.
A bane of all community shops is the plethora of unacceptable items that land at the shop door (usually after hours). Dirty clothing, broken computers and printers, incomplete toys and incomplete electrical goods, encyclopaedias, outdated educational books, and outdated children’s car seats are just some of the things that need to be disposed of at a cost.
“Some of the weird things that are left at the front door would make your hair curl, “ said Sue.
Some of these things can’t be mentioned in a respectable publication.
“We’ve had money and jewellery of all sorts come in with clothing and boxes of knick-knacks.”
The Red Cross operated an op shop until they closed the end of 2000. The following year the Bunyip Community Shop opened in March, 2001 under the umbrella of the Bunyip Township Committee. This idea was driven by Lorraine Cartilage and Elizabeth Porter.
