Headington Fairtrade Co-operative

I am very happy to let you know that the Headington Fairtrade Co-operative has now signed a lease for 104 London Road (the former opticians next to Cartridge World).

Redecoration will start immediately, followed by furnishing and stocking. They hope to have the official opening on Tuesday 2 March at 12.30 pm, during Fair Trade Fortnight, but they will be trading before then.

If there is anyone who might be interested in helping to run the shop by joining in a 3-hour shift, or in any other way, and have not already volunteered, please could you contact Joyce Clapp (Ox 765554 or joycemclapp@tiscali.co.uk). Training for volunteers will commence very shortly. And when the shop opens please buy as much as you can there and encourage your friends to do likewise!

(Apologies if this is not an appropriate forum to post this but thought it was good news that people may want to support.)

Haiti Earthquake appeal - street collection result

Our street collection for the Haiti DEC appeal yesterday has proved to be our most successful street collection ever. We deployed over 50 collectors to the Oxford City Centre and collected an amazing £3,335. Both those statistics are records (we collected nearly as much for the Asian Tsunami, but a lot of that came from generous individual donations as opposed to via the collecting tin). The Christian Aid collection at the Westgate Centre and a Red Cross event the same day also did really well, we hear.

So hats off to our Street Collection team of Martin Spires and Annie Thomas, brilliantly aided by Naveed, Ally and Colin. You see Martin and Annie in the picture with the Ops map of Oxford (magic Marker crosses for each collector currently out on the street). Colin (in blue) and Ally (invisible behind Annie) are counting the cash - among the challenges of such a big collection was that of managing a near-continuous cycle of emptying tins, counting the cash and resealing the tin for the next collector. A hectic pace all day. Naveed (seen just as a brown jumper) is checking the collectors' rota.

Hats off too, of course for the many collectors who braved the cold, damp weather to bring in the cash. And the generous people of Oxford for donating it.

Also out on Broad Street doing their thing for Haiti. (but not included in our total) was this magnificent Salsa Band. My windy collection post was the corner of Broad Street and Cornmarket, so I added a bit of amateur percussion with my tin. Hope I stayed in time...

Haiti Earthquake appeal - Street collection in Oxford 23 January

We are organizing a street collection in Oxford City Centre for the Haiti DEC appeal this coming Saturday (23 January). Based at the Oxford Town Hall, we will be putting collectors onto the streets from 9.30 - 16.00.

We're all set. What we need now to maximise the money we can collect is every last person we can get onto the streets with a collecting tin for an hour or so. Oxford is a big place, and the collection needs all the volunteers we can get in order to raise the kind of money the Haiti appeal so desperately needs.

Can you help? Email us at volunteer@oxfordoxfamgroup.org.uk to tell us what time you can be there.

Haiti Earthquake

A major earthquake has struck Haiti, just ten miles from the capital Port-au-Prince. Oxfam is rushing in teams from around the region to respond where we're needed most.
Click here for the latest about the Haiti Eartquake emergency,

New Year's Resolutions

Did you make any New Year's Resolutions? How are you doing?

The classic advice is to

1. Make a specific, but realistic commitment (e.g. "moderate exercise 2 times a week", not "do more exercise" or "loads and loads of exercise every day");
2. Don't give up the first time (or few times) that things don't go to plan;
3. Have ways to keep yourself motivated.

The Oxford Oxfam Group can't really help with the first two, but why not keep yourself motivated by raising money for OOG as you go?

There are lots of ways to do that, for example:

• You decided to cut out that pastry with your coffee each day. Or you gave up smoking. Collect up the saved money and donate it to Oxfam via OOG
• You have a bad habit you want to lose. Fine yourself a donation to OOG each time you do it (tip: family or co-workers will be EXCELLENT at pointing out each time you slip up :-) ).
• Make a small donation to OOG for each day (or each time) you manage to stick with your resolution. For example, you went to the gym today as planned. Good for you. Good for OOG too if you can put an affordable sum in a jar to celebrate and watch it mount up.
• Promise to make a donation if you reach a specific goal (or, if this works better for you, make a donation if you DON'T reach your goal).
  

Please do not feel that the amounts of money have to be painful to be effective. Let's take the pastry example. Maybe your pastry costs you £1 each working day. That's £5 per week; you could have £20 or more for Oxfam in just one month. Remember this isn't actually costing you anything (you would have spent the money on pastries)! Fine to time-limit this or only donate a share of the saving if that works best for you. Let's not do nothing just because we can't do something really spectacular.

Collaboration is another great way of staying motivated.

• Involve your friends, family or co-workers. Whole office giving up the pastries? Ask them to donate the saving (or some of the saving) too. Backsliding suddenly becomes that much more difficult. You could easily and quickly get over the £100 mark.
  
• Let's do this together as OOG members! Let the rest of us know what you're doing (comment on this post, or email us at volunteer@oxfordoxfamgroup.org.uk). We can have fundraising totals, a leader board and so on. By the way, no need to share the details of what you are giving up/taking if it feels kinda personal.
  

Once you've collected some money, write us a cheque (payable to Oxford Oxfam Group) and post it to the Treasurer with a brief note explaining what it is for. If you need an address for that cheque, email volunteer@oxfordoxfamgroup.org.uk to ask for details.

At one time in OOG's history we used to raise significant amounts from this kind of low-key small fundraising by individual members. It's a tradition I'm keen to revive.

Rose Easton

We received some sad news recently – of the death of OOG Member Rose Easton, aged 89. Rose's involvement in Oxfam began with cooking for fundraising lunches in the 1960s, progressed via many other activities to working on reception in Oxfam House, and after her official retirement she volunteered in Oxfam House and the Oxfam Book Shop.

Rose joined OOG a few years after its 1988 beginning. By that time the sale of second-hand goods was in full swing and a substantial earner for OOG, and she eventually contributed greatly to that with her 'Bygones' range of memorabilia. Rose ran her 'Bygones' stall monthly at a number of venues, including Woodstock antiques fair, for many years, raising thousands of pounds for OOG and Oxfam. She became expert in pricing a wide range of goods (and in charming other stallholders into giving free valuations) and as somebody who could talk very persuasively, never let a sale get away.

Over time the memorabilia stall evolved into the 'Nostalgia' stall which appeared at every Book Fair. For many years, visitors to the Book Fair included people who had come especially to browse her stall. In this way she raised hundreds of pounds at the Book Fairs. Rose often recalled a supporters' trip she took with Oxfam to India and the experiences and insights she gained into other lives. Her enthusiasm and determination will be missed by those who knew her. An example to us all. If there were only more of her, think how different the world might be...

Thanks to Tina Fawcett, Helen O'Neill, Pete Sulston and David Green for their contributions to this short tribute to Rose.

Did you know Rose, or have something to share about her contribution to OOG? Please add a comment to this post.

Blog housekeeping

I've just added some things to the right-hand sidebar:

• A link to our signup form for email newsletters and alerts
• A search box
• A "feed" from Oxfam on Twitter - so that content "tweeted" by Oxfam appears here.

Useful? Irrelevant? Not working? Let me know...

Who's going to drive us home, tonight?

Do you have a car or other vehicle and would you be willing to drive people, equipment or stock for the Oxford Oxfam Group? For example, collecting a donation of books for the Book Fair and taking it to our store for sorting. Journeys are likely to be a few miles only, and we're unlikely to need you more than a few times a year. It would be a very useful way to help out on an occasional basis if you can't give much time to OOG this year, and it would spread the work beyond the "usual suspects" who currently get asked time after time. I'd like to collect a list of Driver volunteers - if you are willing to be on that list, please email me - volunteer@oxfordoxfamgroup.org.uk