A pop-up charity shop run by Frome Rotary Club has raised £37,000 in just five months for four charities.
The shop, based in the Westway Precinct, has now closed after raising the funds for Fair Frome, We Hear You (WHY), the Frome Skatepark Project and End Polio Now.
The club, which celebrated the centenary of its charter in Frome in December, opened the shop in the former Post Office premises as part of its centenary programme.
Although the original plan had been to close the shop after Christmas as stock levels fell, the club decided to continue after learning that the WHY Appeal urgently needed to raise funds by the end of March.
President Richard Lines said, “We met WHY CEO Lucy Kitchener and decided to keep the shop going. We appealed for donations from the Frome community and dedicated all proceeds to WHY for the seven weeks leading up to the end of the appeal in March.”
Following an intensive fundraising effort led by Andrew and Anne Prince and Jo Allum, £12,850 was donated to the WHY Appeal.
Maybrook Properties, owners of the Westway Centre, who have supported the shop over several years, later informed the club that there was interest from prospective tenants for the unit.
With closure planned for early May, the club dedicated the shop’s final weeks of trading to additional causes. For two weeks, all proceeds were donated to the new Frome Skatepark Project, which aims to raise £400,000 for a new skate park at Mary Baily Playing Field. The Rotary club has agreed to support the project as a charity partner, raising £3,700.
Richard said, “Rotary’s long-running End Polio Now campaign remains one of the organisation’s most significant international causes.
“Over the past 40 years, global cases have fallen by 99 per cent but the risk remains because of continuing cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan. To coincide with World Immunization Week, proceeds from the shop were also donated to End Polio Now, with £2,600 raised and set to increase to £7,800 through match funding from the Gates Foundation.”
Rotarian and local retailer Andrew Prince said, “The success of the shop would not have been possible without the support of Maybrook Properties and Paul Bairstow, our local man with a van. But it is the support from the Frome community that has made the shop so special. The response to news of its closure shows the impact it has had over the years, not only by helping to raise funds but also by offering value, encouragement and a real sense of community.”
