Anne Marchant volunteers at Seaside Treasures in New Brighton. Her involvement started when she wanted to sell handmade calendars at the shop, which stocks crafts made by members of the community as well as other donated goods.
Seaside Treasures founder Shirley Smith said Anne is an “unbelievable” worker.
“She climbs up ladders, she puts things up. It’s amazing. Everyone else is a bit scared to get up on stools and things, but no, not our Anne.”
Anne repairs knick-knacks. She also came up with the idea to organise all the shop’s buttons into colour-coded boxes.
Despite all of her tasks, Anne said she actually prefers “being lazy”. But she does the jobs to fulfil a need.
"Well, there’s so many little things that need doing," Anne said.
"It’s a little bit risky in a way that you see something that needs doing, and then you see something else that needs doing, and you see something else ... it’s nice seeing the finished result."
Seaside Treasures opened on July 14, 2014.
Shirley had moved back to New Zealand after spending 16 years teaching english in Turkey when she came up with the idea for the shop.
"I’d just come home from Turkey and thought, oh, what can I do to help New Brighton?
"I’d brought a lot of things home that I needed to pass on, and I did a bit of research and discovered that a community co-operative shop would be a great thing for New Brighton."
Seaside Treasures started with seven volunteers and two rooms in its Brighton Mall store.
Ten years later, there are now 12 volunteers and seven rooms filled with crafts from the community and items requested by customers.
Shirley cannot believe the store has made it this far.
"It’s just absolutely a dream.
"(When it started) I thought, well give it a year and it’ll maybe fizzle out. And here we are now, 10 years later. It’s unbelievable."
Shirley owes the store’s success to its volunteers.
"Dedication with the volunteers, working together, and a great bunch of people, and seeing the rewards."
These "rewards" are the donations they make to local organisations.
Seaside Treasures has donated between $4500 and $10,000 to organisations and charities in east Christchurch every year since it opened.
Chairperson Lachlan Hill said the club is grateful for every donation it receives.
"Our staff are volunteers and they give up a lot of time to the club.
"Any money from the community means a lot to us and it goes it goes very far towards medical equipment and IRBs (inflatable rescue boats) and helping around the club just to keep the lights on.”
Shirley said community support has also allowed the store to come a long way.
“(If customers are) looking for anything, they’ll come in and ask us first.
"If we haven’t got it, they’ll go somewhere else.
"Or, if I can’t get it sometimes, I’ll say: ‘Look I’ll get it here tomorrow' and I’ll go and find it and get it here for them.
"The community is just absolutely fabulous. It’s just great to us. So supportive."
Shirley hopes the store will continue for as long as possible.
