Latest News and Events

Solidarity

2011-07-13T04:18:00.000-07:00

Do look at this short film. It explains a lot about what we are about and what we think Solidarity is. The film was made by Companions from Emmaus Gloucestershire.. Please pass on the link to spread the word...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yv_USKfbxo&feature=youtu.be

Stroud Grand Opening

2011-07-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

Nearly there.... Friday 15th July, it's the grand opening of our new shop in Stroud!!!. Terry Waite will be there, as well as John Marjoram, Mayor of Stroud, and Neil Carmichael, MP. The Stroud team will be pleased to welcome you and there will be nibbles!!!

Do come along....

STROUD SHOP OPENING

2011-06-03T01:36:00.000-07:00

At last we have the electricity on at Stroud and so the shop will open on Tuesday 7th June!. The stock is in the shop and we have some very cool furniture over there. We will be busy this weekend finishing off signs now that we have power and we will then be ready to get cracking.
Do call in and see the shop if you are in the area; you may well pick up a bargain!

STROUD SHOP OPENING

2011-04-28T03:18:00.000-07:00

It's with a red face and a big bucketful of embarrasment that I have to announce that I got the date wrong for the Stroud shop opening. The shop will in fact be opening on Tuesday 24th May!.Please make a note in your diary and don't ever mention my mistake to me!

New Shop in Stroud

2011-04-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to be able to announce that we are opening a new shop in Stroud on the London Road. We have just received the signed copy of the lease so it's all systems go to get everything ready. The shop is in the old Helibeds shop so is ideal for furniture. We will be collecting from all over the Stroud Valley and we hope to offer a very rapid delivery service, within 24 hours of purchase!. The shop will open on 10th May.

There will be a full range of furniture and white goods available and we believe that Stroud will welcome our prescence in the town. Anyone interested in donating furniture for the new shop should contact us in Gloucester in the first instance.

Gloucester Citizen

2011-04-18T04:49:00.003-07:00

We are in the Citizen on Tuesday 19th April with an article featuring the work that the Companions do at the nightshelter and the daycentre in Gloucester, helping others who are less fortunate than they are. Grab a copy and have a look.

Strange Donations

2011-04-07T07:51:00.000-07:00

This interesting book was handed in to the Nailsworth shop. I don't think that a modern writer would pick such a title.....

Two things

2011-04-06T04:27:00.000-07:00

First one; we have had another record broken last week. We sold a higher value of goods at Chequers Road last week than we have ever sold before in one week. Well done everyone. We must be getting some things right!
Secondly, please do sign up for the newsletter. We will email you a copy each month and let you know whats going on and whats been happening. No pressurised hard sell, just a bit of good news (we hope) to cheer us all in thes straightened times....

Newsletter for 2010/2011

2011-03-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

Just received the final proof of the latest annual newsletter. It was created by Neil Scriven, of Chuse Design, who also did this website. What a clever monkey he is. If you'd like a copy, even before it's been printed, then do contact us through this site. Believe me, it's worth it!

Wierd day

2011-03-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

Just received nine pine wardrobes, ten pine beds as a donation. It never rains etc.... Strange how these things just come in and then wait for a customer. We've phoned a couple of people up who have expressed an interest so hopefully they will call in later and flash the cash!

Nailsworth Facebook Page

2011-03-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Ah ha, so the team at Nailsworth think they can cut the mustard with the social media. Clearly they think that they can beat me on twitter by playing the facebook card. Have a look at them on emmaus nailsworth facebook page and see what you think. While you are at it try looking at twitter and seeing what emmausglos is up to.

Duchess of Cornwall visit

2011-03-09T02:41:00.000-08:00

HRH the Duchess of Cornwall visited our community on March 1st. What a fantastic day. The Duchess arrived early, causing a moments panic, but then soon put everyone at ease with her charm, winning smile, and downright kindness and concern. Some of our guys were actually reduced to tears! The tele people were there, photographers, and so on, and we were on the evening TV news. Not worth writing much more about it, better to post some pics!!!

Duchess of Cornwall visit

2011-02-17T00:11:00.000-08:00

Ah ha! The Archers on Radio Four thought that they had beaten Emmaus Gloucestershire. That Linda Snell was very cock-a-hoop about being waved at by the Duchess of Cornwall. Well, Archers Fans, guess what? The Duchess of Cornwall is coming to visit us at our Barnwood Road community house on March 1st. She will be neeting most of us there and we will be serving tea and cakes, just as they did on the Archers. The Duchess will be accompanied by the Lady Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, The Lady Mayor of Gloucester, and other dignitaries too numerous to mention. The really great thing for us is the recognition that this gives us and the fact that someone in such a position can take the time to come to see us. Hope to see you there, doing some flag waving, at 201 Barnwood Road, Gloucester!

Royal visit cancelled

2010-12-20T02:20:00.000-08:00

Just received news from Clarence House that the Royal visit has been cancelled. We are all a bit sad, but pleased that the risk of an accident has been taken away. The last thing we want is for the Duchess of Cornwall to fall over on the ice. We are told that the visit will be rescheduled for the end of January 2011.

Emmaus Song

2010-12-17T02:49:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago, Emmaus was approached by Charles Bailey, a London record producer local to Emmaus South Lambeth. He visited the Community, and in his words was ‘blown away by Emmaus’. So much so, in fact, that he wrote and produced a sample track of a song on our behalf. Since then, various teams in the Federation Office have been working with him on taking this forward and a few weeks ago ‘Coldest Nights’ was recorded, including backing vocals from Terry Waite and Companions from Emmaus Greenwich and Emmaus South Lambeth. Terry also recorded a voiceover for the track.

To listen to the track for yourself, click on the link below. (You’ll be humming it in your heads, before you know it!)
http://www.youtube.com/user/emmausuk

Royal Visit

2010-12-15T03:32:00.000-08:00

We are proud and pleased to announce that HRH The Duchess of Cornwall is visiting the community home at Barnwood, Gloucester on Tuesday 21st December. Various local dignitaries will be visiting as well, including the deputy Lord Lieutenant, the Lady Mayor of Gloucester and the High Sherrif.
The visitors will be meeting Companions who will explain what we do and something of the way they live in the community.
The visit starts at 11.00 am and is scheduled to last an hour.
HRH The Duchess if Cornwall is the Patron of Emmaus in the UK and has been our Patron for four years. She is an enthusiastiac support of Emmaus and visited our Naisworth shop two years ago.
You can imagine how busy we are preparing for the visit. Despite the fact that the Community home is very well kept and clean and tidy we all want it to look it's best for the visit.
The public are welcome to see the Duchess as she arrives at 201 Barnwood Road, but the visit itself is private. Your blogger will do a full write up of the visit, including pictures for the newsletter, so do sign up for the "e" version to read the news!

Nailsworth Shop on the radio

2010-12-09T05:10:00.000-08:00

Our Nailsworth shop has been interviewed on Stroud Radio. Actually the shop wasn't interviewed, rather it was Jethro Randolph the shop manager. The shop's window display, as mentioned in the latest newsletter, won second prize in a recycling competition. The window showed a great display of some local people, modelled by local artist, Ellie Bloomfield, enjoying a tea party. The whole display was made from recycled bits and pieces sourced from the shop.

Wintry weather and other musings

2010-11-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

Hello readers

As the cold weather sets in and the frost begins to bite our thoughts turn towards those who are sleeping out on the streets and in whatever shelter they can find.It's easy for us to concentrate on all of the good work that we do, and how well we are doing, and how jolly fine life is when the sun is shining, but quite frankly it all seems a bitter pill to swallow when you begin to think of homeless people facing the cold, the wet, and the sheer biting cruelty of winter. We are all so used to our comforts and our ability to keep fed and warm, that we often find it difficult to empathise with the homeless and to really feel the pain of having no roof, nowhere to stay.
I was speaking the other month to a guy who spent most of his time sleeping in a disused shed down near Gloucester docks and he was telling me how it was the winter that he dreaded. He had been preparing by making sure that the plastic sheeting that keeps the rain out was well tied down and he thought he would be OK. In all honesty I don't think he had any idea what would have been in store for him if he had been out there in this weather. In fact I'm almost relieved that he was imprisoned the other day for possession of drugs and will, at least, be fed and warm. Maybe he'll even begin to sort the drugs stuff out as well. Who knows.
Anyway, I think it's not a bad idea if we all spared a thought for the cold and hungry, wherever they are. If you want to help directly then we can point you in the right direction, but at the very least do spend a moment or two thinking about it .Maybe that will help.

BBC Radio Interview

2010-11-12T00:25:00.000-08:00

Dave and Keith were interviewed on BBC Radio Gloucestershire on Wednesday 10th November. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00byp48/Chris_Baxter_Living_Longer_A_p Just click on the link to hear the programme. It really is a good interview and has prompted a lot of interest. Well done guys!

BBC Buy Furniture

2010-11-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

The BBC are about to start making a programme which will be featuring furniture bought from EG. OK, that is a slight exaggeration..... Actually they have bought some furniture which will be used on film sets. They were looking for 1940's furniture and we managed to find them some wardrobes and dressing tables which will fit the bill. Apparently the furniture will be used mainly in pictures of a bomb site (not sure whether thats a good advert or not.....) Still, the main thing is that we were able to find a home for stuff that probably wouldn't sell in the ordinary way so we are pleased. I shall enjoy playing "spot the wardrobe" when the film is shown in the new year!

FREEBAY

2010-11-01T05:06:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 13th November we are holding a FREEBAY day at our Chequers Road Superstore. The idea is to give some of the furniture and household goods that we cannot sell one last chance of being re-used before taking it to landfill.
We will be offering to customers, for FREE, a range of items ranging from sofas, arm chairs, kitchen and dining chairs, tables, cupboards, small electrical items, bric a brac, pictures and a host of other stuff. The Frebay opens at 9.00 am and will be on a strictly first come, first served basis. Customers who require delivery can arrange this in the normal way.
So, if you need a chair to make that garden shed more comfy, or you'd like some pictures for the guest spare room, or you are just curious and want to come and have a look, then come along to Chequers Road, Gloucester on Satrurday 13th November.

Record Day

2010-10-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

Fantastic sales day at Chequers Road Shop. We sold more goods on Saturday 2nd October than ever before. Customers flocked in and bought all sorts of things, from beds and wardrobes, to washing machines and vacuum cleaners. Three dining room sets were sold as well. A brilliant days sales and a great result to all the hard work by the team.

Nokue, Benin , Africa

2010-09-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

Emmaus International are organising a special sale to help local people who live around Lake Nokue, in Benin, Africa, to access useful goods such as fishing gear, gardening tools and other such things. We have to act fast to collect these things together and to get them to France by the end of September. If you think that you might have any of the following to donate please do get in touch and preferably deliver the goods to one of our shops. Many thanks.
Fishing equipment; hooks, line. weights
Gardening equipment; spades, hoes, forks etc
Small boats, sail cloth. Buckets, pick axes, torches, hammers, saws, school equipment such as pencils, crayons, writing paper,
Tool boxes, sewing machines, generators.

Help the Heroes

2010-07-16T05:37:00.000-07:00

At the end of August a group of Companions from Emmaus Gloucestershire are setting out on a sponsored walk in aid of the Helpfor Heroes appeal. The idea came to Neil Gregory, who has managed to get a group of the guys together who are keen to help.We all think that this is a great cause so we hope that you will get in touch to support the guys. You can make donations through any of our shops or indeed by simply contacting us by email.

Just to give you an idea of how good we are at raising money for others; our open day raised just over £700 whihc is going to help the fledgling community at Bridgend, South Wales, so rest assured that we will get a decent sum for Help the Heroes!

Open Day

2010-06-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

Don't forget that EG is holding an open day on 10th July, from 1.00pm till 4.00 pm. at 201 Barwood Road, Gloucester. Lot's of stuff going on, with a bric a brac stall, barbeque, silly games, and a "slave" auction. Obviously not a real slave, (we don't like human traffickers or such like) but more an Up Pompeii sort of thing. You know the form, pay a silly sum of money to have someone come and wash your car dressed as a cockatoo, or whatever.... Time to use your imagination.... Personally I can't bid, as I'm the auctioneer, but I will be suggesting some interesting possibilities....

The Lady Mayor of Gloucester is coming, which I reckon is pretty cool. She's a lady who has a lot of calls on her time, especially on Saturdays, and for her to take the time to come to 201 Barnwood Road is a great compliment for us. Let's make sure she has a good time.

For everyone this is a chance to come and have fun, and meet us all, get to know who we are, and what we do. You can support is in our efforts to help others. Oh yes, and any money we raise is going to help the fledgling Emmaus group at Bridgend who are keen to start a community there.

See you on the 10th!

World Cup Fever

2010-06-06T23:45:00.000-07:00

OK, "Fever" may be a little strong, but I can't help thinking that the World Cup is taking over everything again. Most of the Companions here at Emmaus Gloucestershire seem to know all the details of the matches, teams and players, and our customers seem equally clued up. Of course there are some of us for whom the World Cup is just another sporting event, but it has to be said that the excitement is growing.
Personally I would recommend one of two courses of action. The first one is to get on with it, join in, paint your face with a badly drawn national flag which you will surely regret the next day, and buy a couple of car flags which will help you consume more fuel as you drive about, or, secondly, why not come along to one of our shops, do a bit of retail therapy, and try and forget the whole thing. Our Cheltenham shop has a good and increasing range of clothes, for instance, and I can say for sure that there is no football strip amongst the rails.......

TV's

2010-05-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely we seem to be approaching the end of the old and cumbersome Cathode Ray Tube T.V. The sales are decreasing whilst the donations are increasing.More and more people want rid of them, fewer and fewer want to buy them. Hardly surprising when you can buy a new flat screen 19" TV for around £100. As a result, rather reluctantly, we are reducing the number that we take in and have decided to stop collecting them from donors houses. Once we explain that it actually costs us money, as a charity, to transport and handle other peoples TV's and that we can barely sell any to recoup our costs, then we feel that most folks will understand why we are refusing perfectly good, workable televisions. This redundancy is something we see with technology all of the time, but I have to say in this case, I for one will not be sorry to see the back of the big box TV.

Donations

2010-05-24T05:58:00.000-07:00

We get lots of people asking about donations and we usually point them in the direction of the website where they can find information about what we can and cannot accept. The other day, however, a couple of Police officers called in asking whether or not we take clothes. Once they had confirmed that we did they brought in a massive pile of all sorts of things. Apparently they had been using them as stage setting material in order to train officers to search potential crime scenes and the like. Clearly the police need to teach people how to search effectively, but often searches take place in the homes of innocent people so they have to be careful.
What is very good for Emmaus is that we now have a great contact with the local Police and they will now be buying furniture, household goods and clothes to set up training situations in the various houses that they use for this purpose.

Charity Bike Ride

2010-05-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

What a day! The weather was good, everyone rode like the wind, and we raised a total of £1500. Actually it was a smidgeon more, but I like nice round sums. Andy Hazell presented the cheque to Ian Watson, from the Railway Children Charity, and we all ate cake and drank tea. Two people walked the distance, as medical problems prevented them from riding a bike (question of pulled muscles or somesuch) so a big cheer for them, as rather than dissappoint their sponsors they still did the 28 miles. Anyway, enough of this. You all know what it was for and you now know what we raised, so just look again at the photo that is the final proof of what a great day it was for everyone involved.

Oh, one last thing,, we may target the Bristol Semi Marathon next.....

Charity Bike Ride

2010-05-13T02:01:00.000-07:00

The excitement is almost too much. Not about the bike riding itself, although that will be great, but about the fact that we have raised £1200 so far to donate to the Railway Children charity. These guys work to help street kids, to keep them out of the hands of traffickers and pimps and other such nasty people. We at Emmaus Gloucestershire are thrilled to bits to be able to make a donation to them and we are so so proud of the people of Gloucestershire who have donated or promised donations. Do look up The Railway Children on the web, they really are worth supporting.
Andy Hazell has been to our shop in Chequers Road today.... to help publicize the event, and he will be at Cheltenham, Henrietta Street, on Saturday. What a nice guy. I think it's great that a sportsman like Andy can find the time and take the trouble to support us, a local charity, in our efforts to help street kids here in the UK and elsewhere in the world. Thanks Andy.

Saturday May 15th Great Bike Challenge

2010-05-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

The great day is approaching and we can now reveal that we have the Gloucester and England Rugby star, Andy Hazell, to greet the riders at the Cheltenham shop in Henrietta Street. Andy will be there not only to greet the riders, but to meet fans and admirers as well. The local press will be there and Andy will be presenting a cheque to the Railway Children Charity. So far we have raised £1015 but we hope to increase this by the time we get to the 15th May. So please come along and meet Andy Hazell and cheer our triumphant riders as they stagger towards the shop!

May 15th Bike Ride

2010-05-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

The latest news is that we may well have found a celebrity to be at the Cheltenham Shop on Saturday May 15th to welcome the riders as they finish their marathon ride from Nailsworth to Gloucester and then finally to Henrietta Street. Discussions are underway and there are rumours of late night meetings and all sorts of goings on as agents are contacted, contracts discussed, and press opportunities managed. Needless to say I cannot say more, let alone disclose the celebrity (or celebrities) involved at this stage. However rest assured, dear reader, that this event is going to be a biggie! And don't forget to bring your camera for some pics of a lifetime!

Charity Bike Ride

2010-05-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

The excitement and fear are beginning to build as we near the date of the great charity bike ride. May 15th is not very far away and we still have to find a celebrity, or someone who can pretend to be one, to welcome everyone as they ride triumphantly towards the Cheltenham shop at about 2.30 in the afternoon. We had hoped to get Terry Waite to do it, as he is such a supporter of such events for Emmaus, but he was already booked far far away so no luck there. We have put a general alert out on Twitter and I have had a hopeful message which might bear fruit on Tuesday. As they say in all the best books "watch this space". Actually, looking at that it's probably just science fiction books, come to think about it.....

Anyway, if you, merry reader, know of someone who can lend the weight of fame to our efforts to raise money to help street kids avoid exploitation, prostitution, and slavery, then do ask them, do plead with them, and generally provoke them into saying yes, they will help us.

Busy week

2010-04-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well, there has been no call from the owner of Imogen's ashes, despite the huge amount of publicity. We have had people asking in all of the shops, but no-one knows who they belong to. They will stay locked in the office until we are contacted.
This week Maureen and co have been preparing budgets for the next two years. As a charity Emmaus Gloucestershire takes the need to track money very seriously indeed, and budget preparation helps us to control what we spend. It does mean an awful lot of work however, all of it on top of all of the other things that have to be done.
Work on the Cheltenham shop continues, with the Companions who are working there doing all of the work themselves. The shop should look really good once it is finished, and by doing it ourselves we are not wasting the money raised through sales of donated items. We all get a bit upset when we see charity shops spending thousands on expensive shop fits. Is it really necessary?
We are in the paper again; this time the Citizen has done a great piece about Sebastien, the French Companion who wants to leave Paris to come to Gloucester. Thanks to the newspaper for that one.
Sales have been pretty good this week. We think that the shop layouts are generating a lot of interest and that people can now see far more easily what we have to offer at Chequers Road Superstore.
Finally I want to mention our forthcoming bike ride in aid of the Charity Railway Children. This charity tries to keep street kids all over the world out of the hands of the evil people who exploit them, rape them, and sell them into slavery. We hope that you can support us in this. Just call into one of our shops and sign up to sponsor the ride!

Filming at Emmaus Gloucestershire

2010-04-15T06:37:00.000-07:00

The BBC have been filming today for an item on Points West in the hope of finding the owner of the casket of Imogens ashes. Liam was filmed talking about Emmaus and the film crew were very interested in our work as well, of course, in the story of Imogen's ashes. We have received coverage in the local press as well and all in all the interest generated in our hunt for the owner has been widespread.

Imogen

2010-04-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

What a busy afternoon. We've been surprised by the interest from the media in our mystery donation. We found a casket with the words "in loving Memory, Imogen" written on a brass plaque. Inside the casket are the ashes of something or someone; we don't know at this stage. The Gloucester Echo, Heart FM, and Radio 5 live have been interviewing here to send a message out to their readers and listeners, to try and find the donor of the casket. Was it given to us by mistake? Do the owners no longer know where it is? Who is Imogen? We simply don't know but we would like to find the person who owns the casket, just so that we can check what the situation is. If you know anything about this, then please do let us know.

Busy week

2010-04-12T00:23:00.000-07:00

This week looks like being very busy. Jason is out of action following an operation, Jav is on holiday, as is Dave, and Barry is off sick with a poorly bad leg. All in all it is going to be hard to staff the show and keep things going. Still, we've faced worse, so I guess we'll cope!

Last week was hectic, with lots of stuff going on. A couple of the guys managed a short trip with Maureen to see some lambing going on whihc provided some good pics for nthe next news letter! Karen went with Pete, Neil and Jason to see the proposed community home at Bridgend, an Emmaus Community that is in the process of finding premises and making a start. We mentor them, to give our advice and support as and when we can, so it was great to see our guys going over to offer advice. I just hope they don't all decide to move there when it opens!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

We are all back at work after the Easter Weekend. Everyone seemed quite subdued this morning, but that's often the case after a break. We soon all got into the swing, however, and had a great days sales at Chequers Road. The guys at Cheltenham are busy reorganising the shop, following the sales and merchandising training, so Neil G, not to be outdone, created two more room sets at Chequers Road. He really does have a flair for this and seems to make something that looks genuinely desirable.
The 10Yetis have done a piece to go out to the press about our rather macabre donation of a casket with some ashes in it, marked "In loving memory, Imogen" We are concerned to find the owner as we are worried that the casket was "donated" by mistake, so we want to be able to return it if that was the case.
Neil B was on Radio Gloucester, BBC, on Saturday, appealing for donations of teapots. So far we have a hundred or so to take to the Paris Salon, but we really would like to get far far more. Thats enough for now,as its gettng late and time for my beauty sleep. You know, the stuff that only seems to work for others...

Kerching

2010-03-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

We have all spent the morning looking at ways in which we can provide a better service for our customers by re-looking our shop layouts. The idea has been to come up with ways that help customers to see what we have in stock and to help them to choose from our fantastic range of secondhand furniture and household goods. The upshot of all of this has been the creation of room settings to highlight some of the furniture, and some firm plans to create a picture gallery to sell picture, a new look book section, and an improved lighting and small electrical goods section. All of this is being put into place at Chequers Road and at Cheltenham. The Nailsworth shop is more difficult, due to lack of space, but then Nailsworth is one of the most profitable charity shops of its size in the whole country!
We will all be very busy over the next month or so putting all of this into place, but we think it will be worth it. Why not drop by and have a look?

What a week

2010-03-26T11:42:00.000-07:00

Week nearly over, so it's time to reflect on what's been happening.

First of all we said goodbye to Sebastien, who had come over from France to spend a couople of weeks in the community. Great guy, a real diamond, as Pete would say. We welcomed back Dave and Chris who had spent the two weeks in France. Despite the reputation of the French, the food wasn't too good, so theyve both lost weight! Scary.However they met new friends, and learnt stuff, and Chris has volunteered to go to Paris again to help with the Emmaus Paris Salon in June, so that must be a good thing.
Everyone has been working really hard this week. We are a bit down on numbers, so this has put the pressure on. Chris, as soon as he got back from France, was on the trail of finding green solutions to our waste problems, and went with Barry to see 2 recycling sites, so we now have access to the means of sorting a big chunk of our problem using a green solution. Recycling is where it's at if you can't re-use!
The 10Yetis (not all of them) came to see us to take pics n stuff for some promo work. Charlotte Yeti is working hard to promote us and organised a radio interview for Neil B who will be on the airwaves next Monday.

We've found a new driver, Steve, who will be helping us out from next Tuesday. Welcome aboard mate.
Trustees have been very much in evidence, with Roland, Alasdair, and Michael spending time in Chequers Road. Good to see them, as always.
Now it's the weekend. Watch this space for more exciting adventures at Emmaus Gloucestershire.

World Water Day

2010-03-22T00:17:00.000-07:00

Today is the day when we all should spare a thought for those without access to clean water. Here at Emmaus Glos we are doing our bit with information points in the shops, and two stalls at Glos College to inform and raise a bit of money. If you want to help but can't make it in today then consider one of the following;

Join our mailing list (check out this site for details)
Donate some cash - we can send it on to Emmaus International
Donate a teapot, with a message inside, for us to sell at the Paris Salon.
Just mention it to a friend - it all helps
Have a look on the web; educate yourself about Water

Finally, have a cup of tea and think how lucky you are to have clean water!

Gloucester Shop

2010-03-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

What an end to the week. The guys have been busy collecting stuff, vans running backwards and forwards (but mainly forwards...) We've got two new mountain bikes, some fantastic Edwardian furniture, some beautiful beds... the list goes on. With luck we should get our usual customers in on Saturday ready to find some bargains. If you're in the area then do come in, it's like a real Alladins cave (without the genie lamp of course...)

World Water Day

2010-03-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

We are busy preparing for World Water Day, 22nd March 2010. We have been invited by Gloucestershire College to have a stall at Cheltenham and Gloucester Campuses where we will present information about WWD (not to be confused with WMD !) and hopefully sell some bric a brac to the students to raise a bit of money for this international appeal. It's a really good thing to try and do something about and by working through Emmaus International we know that our efforts and money won't be wasted.
If you can't make it but would like to donate then just use the form provided and drop us an email telling us how much you have sent so that we can ensure that your donation goes to help someone who does not enjoy clean water have access to this most basic of things.

Visit to Welsh National Museum

2010-03-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

A number of us went to St Fagans museum on Sunday 14th. The sun was great (shining on the righteous of course) and the museum was brilliant. We saw buildings that had been relocated to St Fagans, and rebuilt carefully so that we could see what they had been like long ago.We met a wonderful woman who explained how life had been 2000 years ago whilst sitting in a smoke filled thatched hut. She explained that she had been there all day but managed to get out now and then. As we left we promised to phone HSE to get help.....

Fortunately there were not only buildings but also some furry and wooly friends. This gave Jason a chance to show off tricks he'd learned watching Lamb Watch last week on the tele, whilst the others looked on with amazement at the close resemblance to Kate Humble (sorry Kate, I know, I should be better than that...) Next week it's off to Big Pit for further adventures and a spot of R and R after a hard weeks work.

Emmaus is going green

2010-03-08T01:46:00.000-08:00

Maureen organised a great workshop on how to go green last friday. Kate, one of our trustees came along, as this is an area she has a keen interest in. Everyon, or nearly everyone took part; and we brainstormed a whole heap of ideas that we can put into practice straight away. Some of the ideas are bigger, and will need some heavy thinking and number crunching, but the way the community is rocking at the moment there should be no stopping us.
It was great to see a trustee getting stuck in, and frankly the guys really appreciated it One of the guys said that this was the first time he'd talked to a trustee and that he'd really appreciated the way that Kate took his ideas seriously. Cheers Kate.I'll try and find time to sort out a photo for the blog later today. I am on holiday though.....

Busy Day

2010-03-04T02:10:00.000-08:00

It's a lovely sunny day today, and the customers are out in force. We have two vans on the road, delivering and collecting and we are all running around making sure evrything gets done. The shop is full to bursting with nice things and we are breaking records with our sales.
Our solidarity work is going well; we are preparing for World Water Day at the moment during which we will have two promotional stalls at Gloucestershire College, one at Cheltenham and one at Gloucester. We'll be posting more information about this as we get nearer to WWD 22nd March.
On a lighter note Helen, who is responsible for our admin and accounts, is busy training for the sponsored bike ride from Gloucester to Oxford which takes place soon. She was seen arriving at Chequers Road with her bike this morning. Maybe tomorrow she'll be riding it rather than pushing it!

Website has gone live

2010-03-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

Neil Scriven, at Chuse Design, has sorted out all the last few details and the site has now gone live. We still need to sort out our Google ratings but this is in hand. Many thanks to Neil Scriven for all his hard work. Without him we would not have this site!
We've had a good day today, here at Emmaus Gloucestershire. The web site has gone on stream, everyone has worked very hard, progress has been made on research towards EG becoming much greener, and Mandy from Stroud has agreed to help us find someone who will deal with wood waste. (I think this is mainly due to Chris G being very persuasive... nice one Chris!) Chris and Dave will be off shortly to Paris to steal information from the Froggies (believe me, they call themselves that!) about how we can improve our efforts at recycling.
The only sad bit is that Karen parked her car where she shouldn't have, but you can't win them all.

Watcgh out for the next blog to see what's going on at EmmausGlos. And do please let your friends know about us!

1000 Teapots (it's started)

2010-02-26T23:59:00.000-08:00

The 1000 teapots have started coming in already. Here's a picture of the latest.

1000 Teapots

2010-02-26T05:27:00.000-08:00

We are collecting teapots which we are going to sell in the Emmaus Paris Salon in June this year. We can get more money for them in France as the French think that English teapots are the bees knees. Each tea pot should raise about 5 Euros. The money will go towards providing a safe house in Bosnia to protect womean and kids from human traffickers and to a clean water project in Benin, Africa, which Emmaus International funds.

Hard to believe that the donation of a simple teapot could do so much good. We're being helped by students from Gloucestershire College who are going to do their best to reach the 1000 teapot target.

We are asking donors to write a simple message of support, or a bit of history about their teapot so that our French customers will get an added souvenir with each purchase. Spread the word and start donating teapots today!

First Blog

2010-02-10T02:55:00.000-08:00

We've just received the details of how to post on this Blog from Neil at Chuse Design, who has built and designed the website. So, bear with me, as this is my very first blog..... Best thing to do is just to say a big Thank You to Neil from Chuse Design, without whom this would not be possible. What a star.