5th November Fred Dinenage popped in for visit.
On July 2nd 2024 we celebrated 14 years being open and treated Ted & our customers to a cake!
23rd May 2024 Cowes Men’s Shed’s 6th Birthday event – 32 attendees!
Tony McCarthy, our National Funding officer officially ‘opened’ our new glasshouses
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FIVER FEST! 12-26 MARCH 2022
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Bronze Members Oct 2021
Storeroom were pleased to receive recognition for 10 years supporting the Isle of Wight Business Community as a member of the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce. We are now Bronze Members!
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Isle of Wight Day Sept 2021
Due to the pandemic, events everywhere are few and far between. At Storeroom we were able to join in with this year’s Isle of Wight Day on 11th September 2021. Got in a bit of a pickle when sorting out the flags though!
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Our local MP, Bob Seely visited the Cowes Men’s Shed on Friday 17th January 2020, he liked what he saw – but who wouldn’t?!
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Storeroom was pleased to support Social Enterprise day on Thursday 21st November 2019
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Hog Roast and Pop up Shop event Oct 2019
The Cowes Men’s Shed enjoyed a Hog Roast and Pop up Shop event on 16 October 2019. The Mayor of Cowes, Lora Peacey-Wilcox and Deputy Lord Lieutenant to the Isle of Wight, Nicholas Oulton attended too!
Everyone enjoyed a great bacon butties event at The Cowes Men’s Shed. Lots of new faces came along to see what the Shed has to offer
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We were nine on 1st July 2019! – Then and Now
The Storeroom furniture re-use charity began life at Unit 42, Bridge Road, Cowes on 1st July 2010. The premises were very basic compared to our modern warehouse at 1 Mariners Way, which we moved to in August 2013.
In the last nine years we have seen the closure and decline of various support services for those in our community who are in genuine need, which has made so many lives even more difficult. No-one should never underestimate how much disadvantaged people appreciate the opportunity to purchase affordable furniture to make their living space more comfortable, so it has been heartening in the last twelve months to have seen a few new schemes emerge which are helping people in this way.
The referral service operated by Storeroom, receives referrals from over 50 support agencies, giving those people in need a discount on many of the items we stock.
Storeroom’s Community Project – May 2014 then Summer 2019!
The premises at 25 Somerton became part of Storeroom Charity on 1 May 2015 and originally housed our Education project. Sadly due to lack of funding, we could not forward plan and Education closed four years later. In that time Education had run a successful Skills Gap training project, which saw 678 learners. Of these, 152 people attended for an activity and 526 learners took an accredited course and gained a recognised certification (NOCN) to show prospective employers their achievement. Learner’s new trades based skills would have helped them in their home life as well as with employment opportunities. Around 20% of Education’s learners went on into employment, self-employment or further education after they finished their course, or in some cases, courses.
25,26 Somerton Industrial Park now houses our Community Project The Cowes Men’s Shed, brought to you by Storeroom2010 and supported by funding from #NationalLottery and various other generous funders. At the end of its first year the Shed had over 50 members and the number is still growing. There is a well equipped carpentry workshop and horticulture areas too, most of which are under cover in polytunnels.
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Storeroom2010 and The Cowes Men’s Shed are proud to be working in partnership with Age Friendly Island. Below is the link to our Age Friendly Island Charter.
Here is Laurie Mabbit of Age UK IW presenting the Charter to Adam on 25th June 2019.
Adam received the charter on behalf of Storeroom2010 and The Cowes Men’s Shed.
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The Cowes Men’s Shed celebrated its first birthday on 14 May 2019. There was a delicious buffet and a huge group of people attended over the course of the day. Nick England, Deputy Lord Lieutenant to the Isle of Wight was pleased to attend and discovered what goes on in the Shed.
We even received a couple of Birthday cards!
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We updated our information board for Storeroom awareness day. Did you see us when you were out and about doing your food shopping? We were at Tesco Ryde on Thursday 7 February 2019 between 10am-2pm
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Monday 26 November 2018 saw a well attended Social Event at The Cowes Men’s Shed. Adam brought his guitar in and everyone had a Christmas sing song!
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Storeroom supported Buy Nothing New Day on Friday 24th November 2018. In 2017, UK customers were expected to spend up to £8bn during #BlackFriday weekend. Just imagine if even half of that huge amount of money was spent in reuse charity shops instead – what an amazing amount of good it would do for local charities – think how much they could achieve with the extra monies! #BuyNothingNew
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You’ll be familiar with Black Friday, one of the many American marketing ploys to have made its way to this side of the Atlantic, where shops “slash” their prices and people (allegedly) camp outside the shops, scrambling on top of each other as soon as the doors open to get the best bargain. In protest to this, Buy Nothing Day – was started in 1992 by a Canadian artist named Ted Dave – and was moved to the same day as Black Friday to raise awareness of consumerism.
The Reuse Network (Storeroom are members) decided to put their own little reuse spin on this, and make it Buy Nothing New Day!
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On 15th October 2018 the Cowes Men’s Shed had a Bacon Butty event which was well attended with new faces; including some local councillors who were very enthusiastic about this new Community Project from Storeroom2010. Some staff and volunteers sneaked in for a butty too!
Thank you to everyone who came along.
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CBA members enjoyed a Networking event at Cowes Men’s Shed on 26th September 2018. Everyone popped their business cards into the raffle and there were three prizes. The cheese and wine buffet went down well too.
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COMMUNITY BUSINESS WEEKEND 4-7 MAY 2018
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The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service
We are pleased and proud to say our volunteers received this award on 2 June 2017. The award was created by The Queen in 2002 to mark the occasion of her Golden Jubilee, recognising excellence in voluntary activities carried out by groups in the community. It is the MBE for volunteer groups.
Publication of our group’s details appeared in a special edition of The London Gazette published on 02 June (available to view online). We received a signed certificate from Her Majesty The Queen; (presented locally by the Lord Lieutenant) along with a commemorative English Crystal.
The work Storeroom does for the community was very much admired by the Independent Assessment Committee, chaired by Sir Martyn Lewis CBE.
The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service 2017 represents a tremendous achievement for our organisation. We hope that everyone involved, and particularly our volunteers, feel immensely proud of the recognition that this Award represents.
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Storeroom2010 – winners of the Business in the Community Award
Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce Business Awards for Excellence 2016
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WightMind Award – April 2011
Our first award came from another local organisation, Wightmind, The Isle of Wight Association for Mental Health, who are now part of the Richmond Fellowship.
Wightmind were established for the relief of sickness of persons suffering or recovering from mental health problems by the care, treatment and rehabilitation or such persons.
