Clothing appeal has no working contact details
THE MANAGER of the St Vincent de Paul charity shop in Selskar has appealed to people to be vigilant in relation to clothing appeal leaflets that may be dropped into their letterbox.
One Wexford man received two such leaflets in recent weeks, offering clothes collections, the latest one supposedly being for Orphan Homecare.
The leaflets, which are stickers, ask people to leave bags outside their home with the sticker in view, for collection. He reported the first leaflet to the Charity Regulator Office.
On the latest leaflet this man received, the Charity Number was not registered with the Charity Regulator Office. The website address was a dead end and neither of the listed phone numbers were in service. The company purported to be carrying out the collection has been dissolved since January 2012, according to the Company Registration Office.
Ironically, the leaflet, which was titled ‘Urgent Clothing Appeal’ asked people not to leave bags out any longer than an hour before collection due to ‘high numbers of bogus collectors’.
Lillian Clowery, shop manager at Vincent’s of Wexford said that she had not been aware of such collections starting again, pointing out that a TV programme a few years ago had investigated these types of collections and most people were aware of what was genuine or not.
‘I hadn’t heard anything about these collections but maybe they’re starting back up again,’ she said.
‘We haven’t been affected by it but that’s because people in Wexford are very generous and I think one of the big draws for people donating to us is that the money raised stays in Wexford. The shop is always busy and it generates a huge amount of the charity’s funding.’
She acknowledged that some might find such collections convenient but stressed that if someone had clothes but no transportation the shop would arrange collection.
She added that the charity had a sorting depot in St Michael’s Hall on Green Street where there was plenty of parking for people.
‘We’ve probably been hit a little bit by this type of thing but not enough for it to have a detrimental effect.’