Jane Scarth House – street collection

Jane Scarth House (JSH)  https://www.janescarthhouse.co.uk/ is a local charity that provides emotional and practical support to anyone whose life is affected by cancer.   It is based in Romsey in Hampshire which is a market town near to Southampton where I live.

I have known about Jane Scarth House for years and the amazing work they do so I knew when I started GoT that I wanted to give some of my hours to volunteering with them.

This post is about the first of two volunteering opportunities I have planned with JSH.

My remit was very simple – holding a collecting tin for one hour in Romsey on their street collection day in March.

I was contacted several weeks beforehand to make sure I was still happy to volunteer and then rung again the week before to confirm what time I would be collecting from and to, and the time I should be at the centre to get my tin.

Ten minutes before my start time I went to the centre as directed and was issued with my tin.

The lady organising the street collection was exceedingly busy, but she seemed to manage everything ver cheerfully without getting the least bit flustered.

Instructions were simple – go to your location, swap tabards with the person you’re taking over from and collect until the end of your hour when the next person arrives.

It was a lovely, sunny day and I was stationed outside the Co-op supermarket.  The lady before me handed over her tabard and stickers, helped me on with the tabard (side fastenings are tricky as you can’t see what you’re doing), wished me luck and then I was on….

I asked my husband to get our daughter-in-law to come and take a photograph of my tin for this blog.  She nipped out from her shop to do so and ignored my “I just need a photo of the tin” pleadings (I avoid having my photo taken at all costs usually) , and took this….

Well, I suppose it’s not too bad………….

The collector before me had warned me that things were pretty slow despite how busy the street was.  I know that I do not carry much cash around with me anymore as I tend to pay for things by card, and I am sure that is the main reason people do not give as much to street collections.  However, it was a sunny day and I have always enjoyed people watching so I had a happy hour with several people coming up and putting money in my tin, including my husband who started me off with had a large collection of change!

Before I knew my time was up and I was handing over stickers and tabard to the next collector.  I took my tin back to JSH, where I was very sincerely thanked and given a very welcome cup of tea.

My can raised £16.92 which went toward the final total of £1120.00.