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!
The Furniture Station’s photography competition earlier this summer found 12 stunning images to present within our 2012 calendar. This calendar has now been developed and copies are available from our offices here at The Furniture Station and at Real Camera Co store, Manchester.
Well done to those who participated in the photography compeition, our calendar is now available at a suggested donation of £5 in raising funds for the Furniture Station charity; providing those basic households goods to those in need within the Borough of Stockport.
The following 12 images are now within our 2012 calendar. Hover over each image for photograph details, and click the image to enlarge.
Thanks to three talented local students who have just finished their university degrees; the Furniture Station has now a video demonstrating the step by step process of our service to our clients.
The video is up and running and can be found on the Need Furniture? page of the website.
A massive thank you to Karis, Oliver and Katie for the time and efforts gone into producing this video and good luck with the rest of your careers, this is a smashing video.
A big thank you to all those who came on Friday for The Furniture Station’s 2011 Open Day. With around 100 guests full of our referral agencies, our supporters and funders, The Furniture Station held tours around the workshop and warehouse, showing our guests the latest refurbishment of the areas.
T
he Furniture Station’s Chair Simon Horsfield welcomed the guests with an introductory speech, with The Project Manager, Alan Gunnion discussing the outcomes of the charitbale work, the clients and the impact in which our work can bring.
The afternoon also included guest Speaker Stuart Smith and Dave Graves from 3 Sheep Ltd, who demonstrated the recent work done on The Furniture Station’s website and online referral system.
The Worshipful the Mayor and Mayoress of Stockport (Councillor Les Jones and Councillor Jackie Jones) also joined the event in presenting framed photographs to the winners of our latest photography competition, in which 12 photographs were chosen for The Furniture Station’s 2012 calendar.
The calendars are now in the office at The Furniture Station at a suggested donation of £5. There’s plenty to go so please do drop by, give us a call or drop an email if you would like a copy. The calendars will also be on sale at Real Camera Co in Manchester, where an exhibition of the 12 finalists work shall be displayed throughout October.
A big thank you to Booth Ainsworth who sponsored the delicious buffet at the event.
2011 will also be hosting an Annual Dinner on Friday 2nd December and we are looking to sell more than 200 seats at the Fundraising event, For more information please email joanne at joanne.watson@furniturestation.org.uk or call 0161 483 9010.
For more pictures on The Open Day visit our Facebook page
The Furniture Station Team
Simon Horsfied, Chairman of The Furniture Station swam 1.9km, cycled a 58 mile bike and ran a half marathon to finish in the time of 6 hours and 1 minute this summer. Through the help of his supporters, Simon managed to raise a whopping £1,600+ for the charity. Well done to Simon and a massive thank you to all those supporters!
The Furniture Station X
A team of 4 ran their backwards run as superheroes on Sunday, raising over £200 for The Furniture Station and Forever Manchester. As you can see from the photos, we were the only superheroes in the race! The 4 superheroes thought it’d be a breeze….who needs to prepare right? Running backwards would be like running forwards? Not right, running backwards in a race up and down hills is definitely challenging and the following day pains are kicking in! But it was all worth it, and it was good fun for ‘the awesome 4′. Funds are still being raised via charity page , the total will be calculated next week. Pictures are up on our facebook . Well done superheroes! We did a good job!
Raise money by shopping at your favourite stores, by visiting a Easy Fundraising first and selecting The Furniture Station as your nominated charity. Easy Fundraising allows our supporters to simply raise money when doing their usual online shopping and are logged in at Easy Fundraising. Most major retailers participate such as Amazon, Ebay, ASDA, B&Q, Debenhams, iTunes, M&S, Sainsbury’s, O2, Toys R Us and much more!
