An Ocean Grove opportunity shop is welcoming the community back with a new look and feel just four months after it was closed.
Ocean Grove Uniting Church’s Dove Opportunity Shop reopened on 9 December with a fresh-faced and rebranded facility.
Church and outreach administrator Silvana Kerin said the reopening was focused on the future and renewal of the shop.
“We had a big day, and our takings were more than any day in the previous 12 months, so it was very successful,” she said.
“This is the church’s connection to community and how they give back, so it’s really important to them that it’s operational and that it goes well.
“It’s just a combination of relief and excitement as well as this sense of being confident about the future of the op shop, whose hands it’s in and how it’s going to operate in the future.”
Ms Kerin said a big aim of the shop was to continue raising money that would go towards regional groups and organisations in need.
“The vast majority of takings get dispersed to different community groups, schools and other programs that apply for a grant,” she said.
“Unlike a lot of other church-run opportunity shops, where the majority of their proceeds go back into the church, this is the opposite of that.
“The church and the congregation members are lovely and generous people who are genuinely wanting to do the right thing and have that reflected out to the community.”
The shop shut down on 7 August following issues with the Dove committee and church, along with improvement works, that forced the closure.
“Some things weren’t going well, and then the church council decided, along with other people, that the best course of action at that time was to close it so that they could reset and change the operation,” Ms Kerin said.
Ms Kerin said the shop will only be open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays until more volunteers are able to come on board, with additional opening days expected next year.
“The op shop is a good culture with a social environment, and volunteers really do feel like they’re part of something,” she said.
“They’re contributing to something that is helping their immediate and wider community while feeling like they’re doing something of value.
“There’s no opening a shop that runs on volunteers without volunteers, so we’ve had to do a bit of a push to try and get some new volunteers.”
For more information about volunteering, people can send an email to oguc107@gmail.com or drop by the store during its opening hours.
