Meet a Member | The Redo Project
Don’t throw that away. I could make a…
It has been three years since I walked into the charity shop on 177 Drayton road in Norwich the first time. This was Hallswood Animal Sanctuary’s first fundraising shop and over the years there are so many lessons we have learnt, the most important one being "Do not worry. There will always be enough donations".
It seems like people have an endless supply of, well pretty much everything! It's as if our lovely supporters have magical wardrobes leading to a Narnia of unwanted bric-a-brac, clothes, shoes, handbags, jewellery, you-name-it. Amazing as it is, it brings with it a dilemma - what to do with it all! The shop floor will only hold so many items and the storage the same. We even opened a second shop but within two months they were self-sufficient and did not need us to send them any stock. Certain things are simple to get rid of without having to throw them away. Like clothes. We have a “rag man” picking all unwanted shoes and clothes up once a week so that we can keep the shops well stocked with new things but what about everything else?
Being a person who does not like to waste things, sorting through donations can sometimes be painful. A lovely plate with a pretty pattern goes in the bin just because it has a tiny chip, a necklace without a clasp soon follows. Item after item gets sent to landfill not due to lack of imagination, just lack of space. 
ReDo is a project aimed to cut Hallswood Animal Sanctuary’s waste by 50% (although my personal maybe naive hope is that we one day will be waste free). We are currently applying for grants to build a workshop and start up a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The purpose of this project will be to:
Recycle, Remake and Reuse Educate and Encourage people to think before they throw away Develop young people and their skills and provide them with a first work experience Organise events and workshops
ReDo is truly a fair with a difference. Our first step, whilst waiting for the funds to build our workshop, will be an event and it is now almost time!
The village hall will be filled with crafters, workshops, businesses and groups, all recycling heroes in different ways. We want these events not only to be a place where people can find fantastic crafts, but also a place to be inspired. A place to make you Rethink.
If you happen to be close to Norwich, pop in, it is free and will be open between 10am and 2pm. Oh, I almost forgot: Hallswood Animal Sanctuary will be there with a café filled with delicious home bakes! For more information about ReDo and this event, please visit us on the ReDo Facebook page.
How I met Val
One of the things we try to do is to work with local crafters to help them get the supplies they need. That way we know who to call when we get certain things in, helping us and them (we love win-win situations J ). This is how I met Val, the other driver behind the ReDo project.
Val Hanna is a lady who has been using preloved materials for years. Val and her business,Reclaim That Style, uses not only recycled fabrics like curtains, bed linen, blankets and duvets, but even the little metal bit in bras which are turned into a perfect tail for her lovely draft stoppers. I love it!
We save all our duvets, curtains and bed linen that do not sell in the shop for her to turn into fantastic beds for pets. Have a look through some more of her amazing creations on theRecliam That Style Facebook page.
So that is it! I hope the you can help us turn ReDo into something fantastic by joining us on Facebook. We need more people who, like Val, can see a use in the tiniest of things and say “Oh, don’t throw that away. I could turn that into a dog tail on a draft stopper”.
Maria Thornberg is one of the founders of the ReDo project. The local Norwich project is aimed to inspire people to reuse items that would otherwise be sent to landfill.
