Tag: volunteer

Charity, Education, Fair trade, Fair Trade Fortnight, Podcasts, Shop, Volunteer

Meet the Volunteers Episode 4

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Our delightful shop in Gauze Street, Paisley

In episode 6 of our current series we meet 3 more volunteers from Rainbow Turtle.

First up is Kitty McEachen, an escapee from Glasgow who, to her surprise, found that Paisley wasn’t such a bad place to live in, especially when she came upon Rainbow Turtle and some of the committed volunteers, including the inspiring founder, Liz Cotton.

Next we have Duncan Macintosh, a long term supporter of fair trade, and early stall holder, who became a volunteer in the shop when he retired in 2009.

Finally we meet Marianne Sermanni, volunteer and trustee of the charity who, though her friendship with Roisin Mulholland (we spoke to Roisin in episode 2), started working in the shop in 2017.

Charity, Education, Podcasts

Meet the Volunteers Episode 2

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Rainbow Turtle shop in Gauze Street, Paisley

In this edition of our podcast, Rainbow Turtle Rebooted, we introduce you to Joyce Jackson who started out as a fair trade stall holder in her local church before being inveigled into volunteering at the shop by Liz Cotton when she retired 7 or 8 years ago.

Following Joyce we have Clotilde Raydon, who 6 years ago came into the shop to get some refills for cleaning products. After a couple of visits, Liz Cotton, the then manager and director of the shop, invited Clotilde to become a volunteer. 

Finally, we hear from Chris Johnstone, volunteer, director of the shop and chair of the charity trustees. He started out in fair trade when his GP’s practice became the first fair trade practice in Scotland.

Charity, Shop, Volunteer

Farewell to Fiona and Jim Rutherford

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Left to right: Shop manager Elise Kelly with retiring volunteers Jim and Fiona Rutherford

Rainbow Turtle volunteers gathered recently to say goodbye to Fiona and Jim Rutherford. They started helping out at the shop at its beginning over 20 years ago! They are a bright friendly couple who were always welcoming to people coming in to browse or to shop.

Rainbow Turtle ceilidh 2017 with band Dlù.

They were passionate about fair trade and got involved our events. For many years they served on the board of trustees, with Jim as chairperson and Fiona as treasurer.

Volunteers’ gathering 2018

They are a talented couple both having worked many years as social workers in Inverclyde. Jim was also a beautiful singer and had organised many shows and musical events in Renfrewshire. He was probably best known as the creator of the play for the famous Renfrewshire Witch Project that remembered the Paisley witch hunt in 1697. The show was performed a number of times across Paisley town centre.

Jim and Fiona will be sorely missed, though I’m sure we’ll see them in the shop or at our events in the future.

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Volunteering at Rainbow Turtle

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Last week we went along to the UWS Students’ Union for their annual Volunteering Fair. It was really great to speak to new students about what we do for Fair Trade in Paisley and how they can get involved. I hope we’ve picked up some new volunteers by going along, but at the very least we attracted some new customers to our lovely shop by showing off just some of the amazing products we sell which help producers and the environment.

But don’t worry – it’s not only students that we’re looking for as volunteers! Coming into the Christmas season we’ll be very busy and need lots of extra help so if you’d like a bit of retail experience in a laid-back, friendly environment, or you’re simply a supporter of the shop and want to help out even more then please get in touch. You can find out more about our volunteering opportunities here and we’d be delighted to hear from anyone, regardless of your previous experience or skills. Get in touch!