China News Service, Hangzhou, March 26 (Guo Qiyu and Wei Ting) After your busy work, what is it like to be a "store manager for a day" in a charity shop? Recently, many young people came to a charity shop in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, to participate in the "Store Manager for a Day" volunteer activity and experience a day of "living elsewhere".
The Shantao Charity Store, located in Sijiqing Street, Shangcheng District, circulates idle items from companies and individuals through charity sales, renovations, donations, etc., raises funds to help the disabled find employment, and explores social integration.
Volunteers experience "Store Manager for a Day" in a charity shop. Photo by Mary Chen
This weekend, the "one-day store managers" of Shantao Charity Store were five volunteers from a certain company. "Santao's neighbor is the Zhejiang Provincial Eye Hospital. There is a lot of traffic in the store on weekends, so we came here early in the morning." Volunteer Tong Xiaotian introduced enthusiastically.
Three of the four employees of the Shantao Charity Store are disabled, and one of them is hearing impaired. Therefore, experiencing "a store manager for a day" and communicating and cooperating with employees are also important. During this day, volunteers need to learn basic sign language and communication in order to cooperate with hearing-impaired partners to complete the production and charity sale of coffee and tea.
"This is a treasure store. Before I came here, I thought it was just for showing love. After I came here, I found that this is an authentic love supermarket." Volunteer Guo Tingting said that "one-day store managers" can experience store operations in depth here and participate in store storage. Organizing, display design, receiving customers, making coffee and tea, etc.
Volunteers stock the shelves in a charity shop. Photo by Mary Chen
The shelves of the store are fully stocked with a wide variety of clothing, bags, shoes and socks, ornaments, books, cosmetics and other items: 5 yuan for a pair of "wrong socks" to break prejudices for autistic children, 20 yuan for a pair of "wrong socks" made by autistic children Hand-painted mouse pads, various Chinese and foreign books ranging from 3 yuan to 29 yuan...
“Every item here comes from idle donations from companies and individuals.” Zeng Xiaojun, head of Hangzhou city operations of Shantao Charity Store, said that there are currently three different donation methods: in-store donation, express delivery donation, and one-kilometer door-to-door collection. , all donations will be sorted and disinfected before being put on the shelves. Individual donations will also be artistically created according to the situation before being circulated.
The proceeds from the charity sale will also be passed on in a charity relay. Zeng Xiaojun said that in addition to maintaining store operating costs, the donations will be used for social welfare such as employment assistance for the disabled. For example, the "Hello Kitty" schoolbags sold in the store, the proceeds will be donated to relief projects for seriously ill children.
Currently, the "one-day store manager" model is quite popular in major cities, but the "one-day store manager" model for public welfare has rarely been launched. In Zeng Xiaojun’s view, this is not a short-term one-day experience. He hopes that more people can break their inherent perceptions through personal experience and build a more vivid and concrete impression of charity and public welfare from every detail.
It is understood that this is the first charity store that Shantao has taken root in Hangzhou. It already has 20 physical stores in various cities across the country. At present, Shantao uses its operating income to support a highly disabled-inclusive work team and provides them with stable, dignified and integrated employment opportunities.
"If I have to do 10 small charity things in a year, I would like to come to Shantao 10 times." A volunteer said after the "Store Manager for a Day" experience. (over)