Marking the 20th anniversary of the Orphans Aid OpShop last week were, from left, Shonagh Clarke, manager Carolyn Brown, Rosanne Wybrow, Eileen Ladbrook,OpShop founder Sue van Schreven, David Anderson, Naomi Pirie and supervisor Shirley Overdevest. PHOTO: NINA TAPU
Orphans Aid OpShop founder and chief executive Sue van Schreven acknowledged both the volunteer staff and the work that had been done throughout the store's 20-year history to support Orphans Aid International.
"We are very thankful to the dedication and hard work of our volunteers who make this possible. We could not run the store without them.
"We've had some amazing volunteers, amazing community people just giving the most awesome generous gifts and it's helped us just multiply."
She pointed out that the organisation had started out more than 20 years ago, but it was two decades ago this week it had opened New Zealand's first Orphans Aid OpShop in Invercargill.
"We were originally in Tay St and then we moved here (Spey St) about 14 years ago, to this premises and it's been a real success story," she said.
They now also had op-shops in Waikato, Hamilton,Tauranga, Hastings, Whanganui and Palmerston North and two stores in Dunedin.
"We did have a pop-up in Queenstown for a while and we've done a few pop-ups on Rakiura/Stewart Island which we loved, so it all comes down to people resources," she said.
The Orphans Aid International charitable trust was founded in 2004 and the Invercargill opshop was launched at the time of the 2005 tsunami and had been funding needs ever since.
"The op shops have been a way of funding the work of Orphans Aid International and, particularly at the beginning, it was Eastern Europe and then we moved on to India, and we're very strongly involved in Uganda now as well, and more recently with Ukrainian refugees."
The Invercargill store had been "very much a community hub", where staff and customers got to know each other.
There were shoppers that came in on certain days of the week to see a volunteer that they looked forward "to have a chat with".
"It's part of their regular walk," Ms van Schreven said.
We have a lot of people who pop in that maybe are a bit lonely and just need someone to talk to and that's really lovely."
