It’s been a year since Lisa Wellington struck out on her own after the closure of Paeroa’s SPCA op shop, and she’s celebrating by doing what she does best – helping the community.
Her new Paeroa-based op shop, Funky Finds, turns one this month.
To celebrate, Lisa is holding a 50 per cent-off sale between November 15-21. But she’s also asking something in return.
“We accept donations any time… We never say no to anybody. If they want to donate something, we will find a home for it. [But] that particular week, we’re asking for toiletries.”
The toiletries will be going to Thames-based Te Whāriki Manawāhine o Hauraki Women’s Refuge to support their community work.
It’s just business as usual for the Funky Finds team, who are always looking for ways to help. Over the past year, they have donated goods to all sorts of local organisations.
“In wintertime we make sure [the preschools] have winter woolies for the kids who haven’t got them… We gave the Waihī Surf Club small surfboards, wetsuits, goggles… We gave the Thames Golf Club little bits and pieces of golf equipment for the juniors,” volunteer Paddy Corneby said.
“If there’s a need in the community we’re quite happy to help.”
“It’s not always been money, because we do struggle through the winter like everybody else does,” Lisa said.
“But we give them goods… We’re always happy to help where we can and as much as we can – to me, that’s what we’re here for.”
Lisa said she does everything she can to make things easy for people to support the shop as well, including opening seven days a week, keeping prices low, and providing EFTPOS and Paywave.
It’s not just her love for her community, but the support of her team of volunteers which has kept Lisa going since the SPCA op shop closed its doors.
“I loved my job, absolutely loved it. So I thought, well, there is a need for another op shop. And I had some savings, so I was able to set [Funky Finds] up,” Lisa said.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without having such great volunteers. We all worked together in the SPCA so they’ve just moved from helping me there to helping me here. It’s a little family, we work well together.
“And we’ve got a lot of regular customers and regular donations from the same people… there’s people in the community who step in and say, ‘look, we’ll give you a hand’.”
DETAILS: Funky Finds Op Shop’s first birthday, November 15-21 on Belmont Rd, Paeroa.
