Volunteering with LoveOliver, the Childhood Cancer Charity

At Livingston James Group, we strive to make an impact not only for our clients, candidates, and colleagues, but also for the communities of which we are a part of. We define ‘communities’ as the social and environmental causes that are important to us.  To help support these activities, each colleague is given two fully paid days a year to invest in the cause most important to them. LoveOliver is a cause close to Hamilton Forth’s Hazel Swan.  As part of our LJG Volunteer Champion group, Hazel organised a day of volunteering with the Fife based charity.

 

About LoveOliver

LoveOliver is dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and the families of children in Scotland diagnosed with cancer through provision of appropriate financial and practical support, and the development of new treatments through funding research.  LoveOliver provides invaluable practical support to families at the Royal Hospitals for Sick Children in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow and have also recently started running a drop-in cafe at The Howat Hub at Edinburgh Hospital as an incredible place to give families facing childhood cancer the chance to escape the ward when they can.  Volunteer and fundraising support is crucial to the charity, and they were delighted to have the Livingston James Group come along to their Glenrothes Charity Shop in the Kingdom Centre.

 

Getting to Work

On arriving at the charity shop, we had a lovely welcome from the LoveOliver team with a tour of the shop, some housekeeping of course and a little introduction to the history, challenges, and successes of the charity and how the shop came about.  It’s a big shop and the work they have done to get it up and running was fantastic to learn about and see!!

We split into teams and Team 1 was put straight to work sorting donations (toys, books and children’s clothes) all under the direction of the LoveOliver team and regular volunteers.  We were quickly brought up to speed with a quick burst of training to understand our Paw Patrol toys from our Hot Wheels, Barbies vs Sindy, the importance of checking batteries, sorting pieces into boxes and of course making sure the 1000-piece jigsaws were all present and correct.

Team 2 was responsible for sorting donated clothing, sorting the Summer clothes into age groups and making sure that the clothes were in good condition ready to be priced and steamed.  Nothing goes to waste in the shop, with clothes that are passed their best being sent to the ‘rag’ pile for collection where the charity will receive a small donation based on weight.

Once the clothes are all sorted, they are all individually steamed.  Not a job you want to be doing on a hot day but nonetheless needs to be done and the team mucked in to get the job done.  Once steamed, the clothes then move onto pricing ready to be put on the shop floor.

The final step of course was clean up and everyone pulled together at the end of the day to make sure everything was cleared away, swept up and mopped ready for it all to start again the next day.

 

Making a Difference

For the team, it was a fabulous way for us to invest our time in helping the LoveOliver charity.  The work they are doing at the shop and through other fundraising activities is crucial to families across Scotland, raising much needed funds to help support families across Scotland.  It was also great to talk with the LoveOliver Volunteer team, hearing about their own stories and motivations for volunteering their time to the charity.  Everyone had their own personal reasons which was lovely to hear and be part of for the day.

Everyone in the LJG team had a great day and were delighted to be able to help and gain an insight into the amazing work the LoveOliver team are doing.

We thank the LoveOliver team for allowing us be a small part of their journey and we would encourage anyone looking to support the charity to get in touch with them at via their website – LoveOliver.

To find out more about life at Livingston James Group contact [email protected]

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