The Wardman Wire

Yesterday I did my (in theory) biennial half day helping out at Nottinghan’s Kwon Sale - which is a sale of “nearly new things for children” that has been running at St John’s Theological College in Bramcote, Nottingham - raising funds for a hospital in Uganda and recycling hundreds of nearly new items, from toys to clothes to pushchairs.

The KWON sale charges commission of a third on any goods sold, and raises several thousand pounds each time. It has been running for at least 2 decades.

This time there were 50 helpers, 80 sellers and several hundred customers through the door during the two hours the sale was open.

Sellers, who may be people making a second income or parents with toys or clothers a child has outgrown, bring between a couple of carrier bags and a carful of goods. They set their own prices.

Helpers sort these across a number of rooms on the Friday night, and the sale is open for just 2 hours on Saturday morning. Everything unsold has been packed up and taken away by mid-afternoon - either by sellers or by a local charity.

The first sale was named after a student at the College called Kwon, who studied at St John’s College, Nottingham in (I think) the 1970s. The sale has been running ever since.

There is an interesting combination of the old and the new. Publicity is done by local leafletting, but seller registration is done by an 0700 number which normally goes to voicemail - but is diverted to a service which sends voicemails to an email account for the week before the sale.

St John’s provides the facilities, and a team anchored by a small core of committed individuals maintaining the vision and the key relationships, and a larger number of “fellow-travellers” like me provide the “unskilled labour”.

A superb example of practical recyling, which over the years has also raised tens of thousands for an essential cause.

I’ve asked Ron Newsham to write a more detailed account, which will arrive in something between 2 days and 2 months.

The next sale will be in November.