Oxfam shops sparkle on their diamond anniversary
Oxfam calls for diamond donations and new volunteers to celebrate 60 years of its charity shops
Oxfam is tomorrow (May 31) celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of its shops by calling for donations of jewellery and more ‘diamond’ volunteers.
Oxfam changed the face of the British high street when we opened the country’s first charity shop in 1948. Six decades on, our network of 730 shops, staffed by more than 20,000 volunteers has raised more than £500 million pounds for our work fighting poverty around the world. Watch video
Oxfam shop founder Joe Mitty led the way by selling extraordinary contributions ranging from a live donkey to a houseboat, and it was his entrepreneurial plan to ask the public for diamonds to celebrate the Oxfam shops’ diamond anniversary. Today Oxfam continues to innovate and has opened the first ever online charity shop (www.oxfam.org.uk/shop), a series of fashion boutiques, over 120 bookshops, music shops and regularly sells high value items - from first edition books and vintage cars to precious jewels - at auction.
Donations of unwanted jewellery will help Oxfam celebrate its 60th anniversary with sparkle, raising money for the people who need help the most.
Joe Mitty, who died last year, also recognised that Oxfam’s real diamonds are its volunteers, and as part of Volunteers’ Week (1st - 7th June) Oxfam is also calling for more people to donate their time and join the thousands helping us to tackle global poverty.
As a celebration of Joe’s life the first Joe Mitty Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit is to be awarded to Joan Travers a volunteer at the High Street Kensington Oxfam shop. Joan has raised thousands of pounds for Oxfam by creating new pieces of jewellery from broken items donated to the shop.
David McCullough, Oxfam’s Director of Trading said:
“Volunteers are the heart and soul of our shops and are central to Oxfam’s work. For this special anniversary we would love people to be inspired to donate some of their time to help their local Oxfam shop and join a network of dedicated and incredibly valuable people. It’s enjoyable and hugely rewarding - and it makes a real difference to Oxfam’s work to tackle global poverty.”
Oxfam’s first ever shop in Broad Street, Oxford is still open today, and tomorrow (May 31) the shop manager and volunteers will be hosting a fashion show and street party in the centre of Oxford to mark the occasion.
Oxfam supporter, Supermodel Yasmin Le Bon, who recently visited the Broad Street shop to meet the volunteers and lend her support to the anniversary, said: “People always have things at home they no longer need or wear. This is a great opportunity to donate your unwanted jewellery and make a real difference to so many lives.”
END
Available for interview:
** David McCullough - Oxfam GB’s Director of Trading
** Joan Travers - 2008 winner of the Joe Mitty Award for Entrepreneurial spirit
Materials available:
** Photographs of Joe Mitty outside the first Oxfam Shop
** Photographs of Joan Travers - winner of the Joe Mitty Award for Entrepreneurial spirit
** Audio (for radio or streaming online) from an interview with Yasmin Le Bon in our Broad Street, Oxford shop recorded 16th May 2008
What is the Joe Mitty Award?
Oxfam’s first employee, Joe Mitty (1919-2007), who was known as ‘The Grandfather of Charity Shops’ used his imagination and vision to raise a great deal of money for Oxfam. This special award has been created to recognise and reward the imagination and entrepreneurial talent that lives on in so many people working and volunteering for Oxfam.
Additional Information for Journalists:·
** The first ever charity shop was opened in Broad Street in 1948, called at that time the Famine Relief Gift Shop. It sent clothes that were donated by local people to those left in poverty by the war and sold off some of the surplus donations. Joe Mitty then arrived in 1949 and had the foresight to turn the shop into a functioning trading outlet - heralding a revolution in retailing. Joe realised that donations from the public, books, crockery, paintings and so on could be sold in a professional looking shop.
** The total amount that the shops (nationally) have contributed to Oxfam’s work in the past 60 years is more than £500 million. There are currently 730 shops nationwide including three new fashion boutique stores that opened in May.
** Over the years there have been some unusual donations to the shops - from a live donkey, an orchard of pick your own apples to a houseboat. The most valuable donation was a rare 17th century economic treatise, which made £18,000.
** Volunteers’ Week (1st-7th June) is the UK’s annual celebration of the work volunteers do. During the Week events are held across the country to recognise, reward and recruit volunteers.
** For anyone purchasing a ‘new’ diamond, Oxfam emphasises the importance of making sure it has been certified through the ‘Kimberley Process’ - a joint government, industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) imposes extensive requirements on its members to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as ‘conflict-free’.
To arrange interviews or for further information please contact:
Georgette Ginn, Press Officer tel: 07980 837173 email: gginn@oxfam.org.uk
Or Rob McNeil, PR Manager tel: 07909 860370 email: rmcneil@oxfam.org.uk
Tags: Oxfam shops
