Thank you Crediton for your Magnificent Support

The Sustainable Crediton Waste Action Group would like to send our sincere thanks to all the people of the Crediton area who supported our recent Give and Take Pop Up Shop on Crediton High Street so magnificently. The event was an astounding success and exceeded all our expectations. We had anticipated a dribble of people and goods through the doors but in actual fact we experienced  a flood! We appeared on TV on BBC Spotlight and BBC Radio Devon's Breakfast Show. Justin Leigh even wore a pair of slippers Jenny Waldron took from the shop!

During the 14 days we were open over 7,700 people walked through our doors. This was truly amazing for a town the size of Crediton. We even had visitors from as far afield as Tiverton, Exeter Barnstaple and Taunton! Some people came back every day to bring more goods to donate or to see what new surprises had appeared. All in all over 7,000 kg of goods came through the door, every bit freely given, and over 95% of it found good new homes.

A huge range of items were donated including thousands of books, CD's, DVD's children's toys and clothes, but also some more unusual items. Some that stick in our memory are an architect's bench, a kitchen sink and an individually made metal sculpture. There were also some really lovely stories about the new homes where goods were going. Our mayor, Frank Letch, took a large sculpture of 3 owls for his 95 year old mother, who loves owls. A set of giant dominos went to a local care home where the residents have trouble seeing the dots on regular sized ones. A delighted child minder took away a childrens tandem tricycle for her little charges to play on and many practically new items, dug out from the backs of people's cupboards where they had sat forlorn and forgotten, went home with adults and children alike with beams on their faces.

Our thanks also go to the Devon County Council Locality Fund and the Big Lottery Fund for the grants which paid the premises overheads and advertising and all the groups and businesses in the town who supported us. Also we must not forget to the small army of volunteers who manned the shop so tirelessly for the 14 days. Events like this really show what a great and generous community Crediton is to live and work in and how fortunate we are to have a wonderful community newspaper like the Courier which  gave us such invaluable editorial coverage. The highest number of shoppers through our door was in fact on the two days after the Courier featured us on their front page! 

So to conclude, we have been asked many times whether we will be doing it again! At this moment in time we are taking a breather, but we do have some ideas about where we can go from here, so watch this space. If you would like more information about our group and what we do, or to get involved in a future event like this, we would love to have you. Please visit our website www.sustainablecrediton.org.uk

Our Give and Take Pop Up Shop advice manual

Sustainable Crediton Waste Action Group.