All about giving at charity card shop

WITH Christmas coming up fast, the Ballarat Combined Charities Card Shop has opened its doors for another year.

The quiet little store just south of Ballarat’s main shopping strip is all about giving.

You buy seasonal cards and gifts, the money you spend goes to local and global charities, and the shop is run by a dedicated team of over 40 volunteers.

“We help so many people and it gives a lot of our customers a real lot of enjoyment,” volunteer Judy Morrison said. “They come in and think, ‘I can help this charity, or I can help that charity?”

The Ballarat Combined Charities Card Shop has been operating for over 30 years.

For the last 21 of them Mrs Morrison has been giving her time every October, November and December to help make sure the doors stay open.

For her, it’s about the enjoyment she gets from involvement with the shop.

“It’s good fun to help somebody else,” she said.

The store sells more than just Charismas cards, although there are a lot of them – and in pretty much every style imaginable You can also find seasonal gifts and decorations, along with items hand crafted by charity groups and the shop’s volunteers.

Some of those items, like tea cosies, are made by Mrs Morrison.

“I can knit them in about a night, but it takes me a day to decide what I’m going to decorate them with,” she said.

“Some of the decoration is crocheted by another one of the girls, so there’s two of us working on these tea cosies.”

Products sold at the store directly benefit 17 charities based in Ballarat and around the world.

They include the Ballarat Health Services Special Care Nursery, Ballarat Soup Bus, Cancer Council Victoria and The Fred Hollows Foundation.

96 per cent of all money made goes back the charities, with the remainder being used to run the shop.

In recent years volunteer Denise Boyko has tried to increase the number of local organisations involved.

“We wanted to support our local charities,” she said. “They’re very pleased to be part of it.”

With the decline in other seasonal combined charity stores in the region, Mrs Boyko said the Ballarat shop is starting to see more customers from outside the city stop by.

When shoppers do visit, one of the volunteers they might meet is Frances Grace, she became involved after her neighbour, Mrs Morrison, asked her.

“I enjoy it,” Ms Grace said.

“I enjoy working with the different ladies, different backgrounds, meeting new people and I enjoy the interaction with customers.

“Judy asked me when I retired from working in a bank. She said, ‘would you mind volunteering?’ So I’ve done it ever since.”

Ballarat Combined Charities Card Shop can be found at 1A Eyre Street, just off the Armstrong Street South corner and one block south of Central Square.

It’s open 9.30am to 4.30pm weekdays in October before adding Saturday trading in November and then even more hours by December. Keep an eye on the Community Corner section (page 16 of this edition) for notices about operating hours closer to Christmas.