A new community-run charity has launched in Tadley which is focused on making the town and its organisations more sustainable.
The Tadley Trust has been up and running since December last year, and the small organisation – which only contains three trustees and around 12 volunteers – has already made headway in helping around the town.
A key remit of the trust is receiving donations from groups and people in the local area and then re-distributing these items to where they are most needed.
Chair of trustees Steph Scott said: “We are a group of local people, some people have been in Tadley their whole lives and others have moved here in more recent times, but we are all very committed to the local community and giving back to it.”
Its first major event took place at The Point community centre on March 2, where around 100 people attended the trust’s pop-up shop and more than £820 was raised.
Miss Scott added: “It was a lot of work but really worth it and the generosity and support from the local community was overwhelming.
“We are planning our next event on April 12 at the Pamber Heath War Memorial Hall, and are speaking to some of the local PTAs about running events at their schools with a focus on children’s activities and a book ‘swap shop’ where they can donate books in exchange for new ones to encourage sustainability and reading.”
Specific undertakings of The Tadley Trust include collecting unwanted books and donating them to school libraries, receiving well-used pieces of clothing and passing them on to St Michael’s Hospice in Basingstoke or Dogs Trust and operating a bra bank for breast cancer research.
The trust also works with Berkshire-based charity Dresses for Bucket List Wishes.
It donates any prom dresses or evening wear it receives to the charity, which then sells it at its own events with proceeds going towards helping and supporting adults with terminal medical conditions.
As well as redistributing unwanted objects to different charities, the trust runs pop-up shop events and online auctions where it sells donated items to help with the charity’s costs.
Trustees hope that after the charity begins to grow, it will be able to give a proportion of this money out to local groups through a grant scheme.
To find out more about The Tadley Trust, visit its Facebook page at http://rb.gy/qkw8bm or its website at http://rb.gy/xtf3mw
The trust’s next pop-up shop event will take place at the Pamber Heath War Memorial Hall between 1pm and 4pm on Friday, April 12.
