Hospice shop celebrates 10th birthday
The St Andrew’s Hospice shop in Strathaven is celebrating its 10th birthday this week. 
It is cause for double celebration as 9 of the shop’s volunteers received their 10 year service award too, having given their time and skills since the shop opened in 2011.
At a presentation on Friday 11th June, the team received flowers and a ‘10 years volunteering’ pin from the Hospice’s Chief Executive Joy Farquharson and Volunteer Co-ordinator, Julie Wilson.
Joy told the volunteers the impact that their support and dedication to the role has on the day-to-day running of the Hospice: “It is a privilege to wish the Strathaven shop a happy 10th birthday, and to particularly thank Rae Nicholson, Jess Cairns, Margo Crawford, Joan Dalzell, Irene French, Maggie Mears, Helen Murdoch, Marjorie Gillespie and Ishbel Johnston who have volunteered in this shop for all of those 10 years. It’s a real achievement.
“When you count it up, you’ve dedicated over 14,000 hours of your time to the Hospice. In that time, we would have had to raise a further £133,000 had you not volunteered, so a huge thank you to you all, and to all of our volunteers across our Lanarkshire shops.
“Without the support of all our volunteers, we would need to raise an additional £1.1million each year to keep our services running. You all contribute in such a huge way so a great big thank you to you all.”
Maggie Mears, one of the volunteers who received her 10 year service award told us what the team enjoys most about their role in the Strathaven shop: “We’re all so happy to be helping in any way we can. We have a lot of fun, we’ve made so many friends through volunteering and it gives us a feel good factor to know that we’re helping St Andrew’s Hospice.”
Strathaven shop manager, Caroline Scott said: “I would like to thank all of our wonderful volunteers for their service, especially to the ladies who have given 10 years of their time to our shop. I’d also like to thank our fabulous customers who have supported us in this community over the years. It is greatly appreciated.”
