Volunteers at SHARE can't believe the out-of-the-blue donation which left them with that Friday feeling.
Volunteers at a Chester homeless charity have got that Friday feeling after receiving an amazing £40,000 donation that means they can now buy a house to get three rough sleepers off the streets.
Adam Dandy from SHARE received the amazingly generous offer in a phone call from Tarvin-based specialist electroplating company RA Chilton Ltd earlier today (Friday).
The £40,000 was in the charity’s Buy-a-Brick appeal fund inside 10 minutes.
And with more than £60,000 already in the pot, Adam believes £100,000 should be enough to buy a three-bed property which can be transformed into a home for people down on their luck until they can get back on their feet.
The well known charity worker and Chester businessman just can’t believe it.
Adam said:
“It’s out of this world and was completely unexpected. This donation has probably given us a two-year head start from where we were. We have had volunteers in the shop since 2015 working 9am-5pm, six days a week, to raise the sixty odd thousand pounds we already had. For someone to come along and donate £40,000 is unbelievable!”
Adam had to ask the lady from the business to repeat the proposed donation because he assumed he must have misheard.
“She said they had had a very good year and wanted to give something back,” he continued. “They’ve been following our Facebook page and seeing the posts of kids coming into the shop and spending their pocket money on bricks and wanted to help us get there a bit quicker.”
Adam said the positive news came at the end of an extremely sad week.
“One of the lads on the streets died and our volunteers have been feeling really down about it,” he explained.
Individuals accommodated in the Share property will be supported by the charity.
Once ready, Share will provide them with a reference and work with local businesses to find them full paid employment. When financially stable, the charity will work to move them in to rented accommodation and then take another three people off the streets.
If you would like to help people get off the streets of Chester faster and into accommodation, please click on this link and donate a brick, priced £1 each, to the ShareShop appeal.