Volunteers from gas network company SGN spent a day sifting through donated clothes following a charity drive at the Godstone-based Orpheus Centre.
Orpheus received a significant amount of pre-loved clothes, shoes and more on its monthly Clear out your closet event in mid-October to help raise much-needed funds to support disabled young adults develop essential life skills, gain qualifications, and prepare them for future employment.
The items will be sold at the centre’s Christmas Carols event, car boot sales and on eBay. The charity makes around £12,000 annually from the donations, but before they can be sold, colleagues from SGN’s Southern Legal Services team helped sort and categorise the items to ensure they were in a good condition to sell on.
The volunteering effort was part of SGN’s Community Action Programme, a scheme which gives its 4,000 people a day of company time each year to help an organisation or charity of their choice.
While their day jobs involve ensuring SGN’s gas network activities are legal and compliant, the team threw themselves in to tackle the mountain of unwanted clothes for a really worthy local cause.
Our Assistant Company Secretary Sabrina Nayee organised the CAP day for her colleagues, and said: “It was a pleasure to support Orpheus as the work they do to support disabled young adults is truly impactful. They equip students with vital skills needed to live independently as possible, so it’s really important that fundraising efforts like this are maximised to ensure the project can continue to thrive.”
Orpheus celebrated its 25th anniversary last year and now has 66 students, which is the highest intake to date. This is a testament to the popularity and need for the specialist education which Orpheus offers. There are 21 flats on site and students come from across the UK.
It was such a pleasure to have some of the SGN team volunteer at Orpheus. We are extremely grateful for their continuous support and great efforts on their latest visit organising through all the donations.
