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Luke Webb takes a look behind the scenes of one of Guernsey's biggest charity shops to find out how your donations make a difference locally.
I’ve shopped at Les Bourgs before, but for the first time I got to take a sneak peak behind the hustle and bustle of one of Guernsey’s busiest charity shops.
The first thing that struck me was how the volunteers beamed authentically. As a journalist, I’m very used to turning up to stories and seeing a facade of fake exuberance and joy, over the top displays of team building and positive corporate culture.
However at Les Bourgs there was no trace of this faux-fun. Instead the volunteers are all extremely personable and didn’t change from one moment to the next when a camera lens was loosed or a microphone switched on. Whether it be humour or begrudgingly making a coffee round again, they were all genuine, as was their clear and obvious care for their work and their fellow volunteers.
Pictured: Les Bourgs sorting room, the drop off point, and the beginning of the process for donations entering Les Bourgs.
Danielle Bullock is the Charity Shop’s Manager.
“Sometimes if you can see somebody struggling a little bit, or they're busy, I in particular will put myself into that situation," she said.
“The busier the better I think. Sometimes when it is a slower day it can kind of, oh, you know! So when it is busier makes us work quicker, gives us that speed, that morale and yeah, I think the doughnuts definitely help sometimes as well.”
And busy, they were.
Pictured: The team at Les Bourgs Hospice charity shop make quick work of sorting the donations, but the task is never ending.
Even though I turned up during a "quiet lull" after the morning rush hour, i was a proper hive. People dropping bits and bobs off. Volunteers going about their varied works. Shoppers picking up pieces, and preparing to pay.
I was told that the drop offs for new donations are a constant tide, delivered with every school drop off or lunchtime pass-by. The donations enter, are instantly sorted and begin their journey to finding a new home.
Every day they have three of these major rush hours, be it the morning rush on the way to work, the lunchtime drop off, or the after school arrivals. Once they’ve been accepted by the shop, they enter the sorting rooms.
Those pieces that aren’t accepted aren’t always useless to the charity, but we’ll come back to that shortly.
For seasonal purchases, like for Christmas decorations or summer swimwear, they’ll either be ready for the shop floor, if they’re in season, or they’ll head to one of the crowded warehouses of stock that take up space on their St Martins site.
Following the sorting by the team of hard working volunteers, the clothes are prepped, hung and priced by an entirely separate team of equally hard working volunteers. They’re checked over, given a thorough examination, the right size marker and a fresh hanger, and then sent on their way to the shop floor.
Pictured: Space is at a premium for those sorting through donations, especially during the rush hours.
Space. I think if those I spoke to would have me mention just one challenge that comes up regularly, it’s space. The donations they get are so vital to keeping the whole charity running, that nothing can go to waste.
So if they get Christmas donations in January…well, they’ll have to stick around for 11 months, or if they get a batch of beach towels in October, they’ll have to wait around until summer.
This means that a huge amount of space is needed, and they are packed to the rafters. I got let inside one of the storage rooms and it genuinely felt like the scene from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. That massive room with cardboard boxes piled high, and slightly-vague descriptions of what lies inside written on the sides in black ink.
For a while, the charity hoped to open another location in the north of the island, but sadly it never materialised. This means the same shop floor has to stock so much more.
Pictured: This is a small sample of the organisation that goes into running Les Bourgs.
There’s also the challenge of accepting useables and declining that which is too far soiled. I heard stories of times where they couldn’t turn a generous soul away, arriving with a big bag of decent donatables, but also heavy items that aren’t suitable for the shop, or are a little too loved. For these, only two paths are laid out, either the charity has to pay to dispose of them, or if the material is still good, they can help get them recycled, but it does still provide a lot more work for the dedicated team.
This actually helps drive home the message of sustainability though, or for the older readers, it harks back to those messages of reduce, reuse and recycle.
Catherine Boughay is the Marketing Manager for the Hospice. She said: “Obviously we're looking at all of the textiles that come in and where possible we try to find other avenues to make use of that clothing or it does go across to the UK to a large recycle centre. They will reuse that clothing, that material, and make it into new clothing for customers.”
So even when challenges do pop up, the Hospice’s charity shop finds a way to make good. Even those garments that seem too far gone can still do more good, than just sitting in landfill, taking up space, and rotting away. Thanks to the Les Bourgs, they end up benefiting someone instead of becoming a nuisance.
Pictured: Catherine Boughay (left), the Hospice's Marketing Manager, and Danielle Bullock (right), the Charity Shops Manager standing outside Les Bourgs Charity Shop.
What I think really connects Les Bourgs to Guernsey, what drives people to donate during rush hour drop offs, or to come and browse and spend cash on pre-loved items, is the people it branches out to, and the lives it impacts on the way.
It might sound cliché but it’s actually beyond the truth, and it comes down to the fact that Guernsey is small. Tiny. It’s an island where everyone knows everyone, or at least someone who knows them.
My first contact with Les Bourgs was when my Uncle was dying of Mesothelioma. There was no medical intervention, there was no “fix”, but what Les Bourgs provided as Hospice care was worth more than anything that sits on the shelves of their shop.
They provided a place for my Nan to spend time with her son. They allowed us as a family to celebrate his final birthday. They acted with kindness in every interaction with my family, not knowing years later those memories would sit fresh still with me now, and end up published.
I’ve helped raise money for Les Bourgs through charity events over the years, but I never mentioned publicly why. It’s because without them my uncles last months would’ve been far, far darker, for all of us.
That’s what shopping at Les Bourgs secures. The chance for other families to have that light in the dark. It allows that mother to say goodbye to her son, or a sister to spend time saying goodbye to her brother. It allows humanity and humility when medical science can’t step in to save the day.
If I’ve learned anything in my media career, it’s that people respond to people. They don’t like spokespeople or entities which stand separate from the people they represent. They don’t like caricatures pretending to be someone they’re not. People like people.
So with such a people focus, it’s no surprise to me that Les Bourgs is as loved as ever, and continues to be well stocked.
From the volunteers who keep the shops shelves full, to the nursing staff who ensure islanders have dignity in final hours, they’re all people from head to toe who care.
Pictured: Volunteers like Brenda keep Les Bourgs Charity Shop running, raising and providing the funds for hospice care.
It’s that connection to the island that is so important for those instrumental in the running of the charity, and it’s shop. It’s what keeps clothes lining and flying off the shelves, and it allows the charity to do their vital work.
28% of the Les Bourgs’ revenue comes from the charity shop, a sizeable chunk, and if the support keeps it’s current trends, that can only mean good things for the charity. As Catherine said: “We're so lucky for the support that we already get from the public, but the shop is growing, the support is most definitely growing and we're so grateful for those donations, so please continue to support us.
“Our next big event that we've got coming up is the 9th November, the opening of our Christmas shop, which is well known on the island. So it's going to be another busy day.”
If you’d like to learn more about Les Bourgs, the hospice, the work they do, or how to get involved, you can visit their website.
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