Every Little Helps

From an early age I have been fascinated with the ever-changing world of fashion, always keeping up with the latest trends in clothing, footwear, and accessories, but never restricted myself to wearing the latest or current styles. I created my own look, leaning more in the direction of being divergent, independent, out of the ordinary, even rebellious some might say. My passion has always been to create, to be artistic, blend old, vintage, with new modern trends. I like to wear what I consider looks good on me, mixing & matching accessories, standing out in the crowd. Co-ordination is a particular skill I have mastered over the years.

As we grow in age, we all change shape and size, buying bigger, buying smaller, wearing shorter, and in time, settling for longer. Changing for comfort eventually, from tight fitting to lose fitting, buying high heels creeping slowly down to mid and eventually to the ever-comfortable flats. Most of us go through a timeline of dress codes, adjusting how we wear our clothing and what we wear for unique occasions. The various stages through-out our lives that determine what style we wear, and later in life taking into consideration what is and what is not appropriate clothing for our age group.

It is understood that women more are likely to have a bigger wardrobe than men, mainly because each item of women’s clothing has so many variables, in style, shape, colour, and length, but inevitably at some point we all have clothing that we do not wear, usually with a multitude of reasons as to why. So, what do we do with it?

Charity has always been at the top of my list, I donate monthly to two charities, and randomly to others, but every spring and summers end I give my unwanted clothing, brick-a-brac and books to local charities. I could sell my unwanted clothes and other items, because more often than not they are in perfect condition when I donate them, but knowing that I have helped charities raise money for their individual cause’s gives me peace of mind knowing I have done something to help others.

Not everyone can afford to donate to charity, and sadly too often nowadays this is the case for many people, due to the inflated cost of living, but there are other ways you can help raise funds for those in need.

I have recently been going through the traumatic loss of my beautiful little puppy dog, it has been one of the worst experiences of my life. And because she was the biggest part of my life, I feel totally lost and very lonely, I have too much time on my hands and not enough to do. I was overwhelmed by the kindness and the beautiful words of support that were offered to me after the announcement I placed on social media letting my friends know of my little dog’s passing, everyone who knew her loved her, Mylie was perfect in every way. I decided straight away that I wanted to give my help and support in some way just as my friends had done for me. I had in the past thought about volunteer work, I had seen adverts asking for help for various causes. So knowing that there are so many charitable organisations out there that are always in need of help I started to do some research.

Something I could help with straight away caught my eye, a local charity was advertising the urgent need for supplies to enable the ongoing care of unwanted dogs, a Dog Rescue Centre, a place that also rescue’s horses, a place that I had visited several times in the past. They run an adoption scheme, a selection of horses that the public can adopt, something I had done in the past. I thought that this was the perfect place to start, a charity that I was familiar with that had been tirelessly helping animals for many years.

I decided I would take the excess dog food (I always bought in bulk,) lots of medication my little girl had left over some blankets and duvets that my family do not use, and a big bag of squeaky toys that had been sitting around for a while. (Yes, my little dog was very spoilt, she just loved ripping open presents, especially the squeaky kind) so I frequently bought her toys so I could enjoy watching the excitement and happiness it brought her when she unwrapped them, but, mostly she just played with her favourites which I have kept.

Julie, my best friend, has been a great comfort and given me unconditional loving support over the last few weeks, and insisted that she would like to be involved. I called the charity, confirmed our intentions and we set a date. Julie arrived at my house with an encompassing energy, eager to proceed with our new found project. Bringing with her, unwanted blankets, and anything else she had spare. We were both feeling incredibly positive about our plans and went inside to discuss how we could make this an ongoing activity, giving us something to occupy ourselves while at the same time helping others.

It was a satisfying experience taking our donations in person, to visit the place & meet some of the individual’s that are happy to give up their free time to help. And although we did not get to meet the recipients directly, we could hear them, a high-pitched symphony of excitement, of delight & happiness. I hoped and prayed for happily ever afters, for each and everyone of those dear little pups. Knowing that our donations were gratefully received and would help those precious little dogs was a very satisfying feeling. The actions we took cost us very little and yet gave us a such an overbearing sense of achievement, the motivation and positive energy we experienced from this one kind act, promoted the need to do more.

Charity comes in all forms, and it quite often goes unnoticed, as we go about our daily lives, we all play our part and help in some way, for instance, the donation food bags at the supermarket, the animal food donation boxes in shop lobbies for animal sanctuaries, these are usually full to the brim. The clothes banks in the supermarket car parks, collections of milk bottle tops for the Air Ambulance, knitted items donated as gifts to raise money, the list goes on.

On our way home we decided that we would volunteer to help in any way we could. Not only are we both great with dogs, but I have also worked with horses and other animals, so it goes without saying that we are more than capable of hands-on work, and we have both had a lifetime’s experience working in admin, retail and sales.

With the help of social media, and by word of mouth, we will focus on this as a starting point.

The salvation army is continually active in my village, they, along with a few other volunteers run the local food bank, so we are going to offer to help with this cause as much as we can. Our Village Facebook page advertises the local help available, and actively encourages people who need a helping hand to visit the local Salvation Army hall. Social media is an immensely powerful tool and one that is used throughout society for numerous purposes, it is a fast & effortless way to keep people informed, so we will use this platform to raise awareness of our particular causes.

Most of us have unwanted items, tucked away in a drawer, hidden in a cupboard, shoved under the bed, kept unused for years because ‘maybe one day’ it will be needed. People just need to be reminded of this and we are hopeful that we can promote giving to charity by initiating the idea of de-cluttering, creating space, clearing out the old to make room for the new, and persuade others to give generously, just as those kind people we met at the dog rescue, give their time so generously and so willingly.

“Every little helps” is a well-known phrase, and one that we will use as a headline in our quest to raise funds for those in need.