Marton op shop thanks volunteers with lunch

A thank-you lunch for (from left) Peter Saywell, Cath Ash and Gillian Bowler.

Fifty dedicated volunteers at the Marton Christian Welfare shop sat down to a pub lunch given in thanks for their unstinting service five-and-half days a week at the op shop.

Welfare president Peter Saywell said the annual lunch was the society's way of thanking the strong and dedicated team.

The op shop in Follett Street is very popular and sells everything from clothes, shoes, bric a brac, books to furniture as well as being the town's foodbank.

The shop is absolutely thriving, Mr Saywell said.

It was an unmitigated disaster on March 30, 2010, in the town when two men torched the old shop and stole food from the foodbank but the town rallied to provide evidence. A 21-year-old student and a17-year-old unemployed man were jointly charged with one count of burglary and one count of arson a month later. Both men were living in the Marton area at the time.

Mr Saywell remembers vividly those hours of the early-morning blaze on when local residents kept arriving to look at the charred and twisted ruins of the Follett St store. Many of those people had stood and wept at the scene, he said.

The shop had been run by the Christian Welfare Fund for more than 30 years and was a foodbank and community drop-in centre as well. It was seen as a haven for many elderly and lonely people,he said.

Earlier Constable Karl Williams had said the shop was very important to the people of Marton. Why anyone would want to destroy an op shop run by volunteers to help the Rangitikei community was hard to understand, he said.

"They do a great job. The op shop is a huge asset to the Rangitikei. They run the local foodbank and do a lot of charity work in our town.''

Local people were incensed over the fire and feelings ran run high in the town for weeks, Constable Williams said.

"Everyone was angry, even among the local criminal fraternity. So many used the op shop, and it helped so many people to make ends meet.''

He said it was definitely the public that had solved the crime. "It was information from the public that led to the early arrests of the two men,'' he said.

A temporary shop was set up in Farmlands in Wanganui Road until the new shop could be built on the Follett Street site. Mr Saywell said. "It was very good too because of our constant dedicated volunteers.''

Mr Saywell said it was the Welfare society that originally set up the Edale Rest Home.
And even though there had been financial woe at the home the home was fine now and being taken over by the national Masonic Trust.

Two speakers at Monday's lunch Project Marton and Rangitikei District councillor Cath Ash and Marton Youth Development Co-ordinator Gillian Bowler talked about the great and special community in the small Rangitikei Town.

Even though he admits he is nearly 80, Mr Saywell he will remain at the helm of such and strong and supportive society.

Op shop manager Normia Luoni said every volunteer gives something special to the running of the shop. "It is such and bright and welcoming shop from all aspects. We're all proud of it.''