SCOTLAND’S Head of Oxfam transferred to the shop floor - working a shift at their Troon store.

Jamie Livingstone came along to Church Street to lend a helping hand on Wednesday, September 20.

One of the main reasons Jamie came to the store was to encourage more locals to get involved and volunteer.

He said: “The shop here is a great shop and there are really good quality donations coming in but there is loads of stock to get through and unfortunately, there aren’t enough helping hands at the moment.

“I have come down to help out with Gillian, the store manager, and to both do a shift myself and make sure that I am familiar with all the challenges that come with it but also to encourage other people to come in and volunteer. The good quality stock is only as good if we can get it out and sold.

“This is really an opportunity for me to come along, lend a hand and give a shift because, personally, I think it is extremely rewarding and it certainly has a massive impact on Oxfam’s work.

“In Troon, we have around 30 volunteers and you are looking at closer to 70 to operate effectively. We rely on a volunteer model – that is how Oxfam makes money to support all the work that we do. 

“It can often seem very distant to be volunteering in a shop in Troon to the crises that are happening around the world, like Bangladesh or the earthquake in Mexico but the funds that are created here are absolutely critical to Oxfam’s work and I think that is important for people to have that in mind. 

“If anyone wants to volunteer, they can walk straight into the shop and speak to Gillian and then it is about when and how long an individual can volunteer for.

“As you can see in the shop right now, we have had loads of donations but they all need to be worked through, they all need to be priced, ironed and hung and need to be put out on the shop floor and this all takes time – there are no short cuts to getting it done.

“There are lots of different roles to working in the shop – you don’t need to be working on the till. You can be, as I have spent most of my morning, in the back sorting through the clothes. It is great – I have had some great banter with getting to know the volunteers here.

“The funds made here supports all the emergency work around the world and Oxfam also supports work here in the UK and that is something that people don’t tend to know about.

“Across Scotland we have over a thousand volunteers across our 36 shops and we couldn’t do the work we do with them and the money coming through the shop.” 

There are two oxfam stores in Troon that residents can volunteer in- both of which are on Church Street, with one stocking mainly books and CDs and the other with clothes, shoes and accessories.