A new business restoring and selling donated second-hand school uniform items has been so busy it’s struggling to keep enough stock on the shelves to meet demand.
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Georgina O’Reilly and Joan McDonald realised their new venture, All About Uniforms, would be well received when, on their opening Sunday of trade, people were lined up at the door at Cooranbong Community Centre.
“It’s been crazy busy, but it’s been great,” Ms O’Reilly said.
The business partners met while working in the uniform shop at Avondale School.
“We knew from working at Avondale that there’s a real need for second-hand uniforms. It can be very expensive for families at this time of year,” Ms O’Reilly said.
All About Uniforms stocks mainly donated second-hand items, but also many new items, still in their packaging, including socks, netball nickers, and belts.
For boys, there are shirts and shorts, trousers, ties, hats, jackets, sports shorts and tracksuits, jumpers, socks and shoes.
For girls, there are skirts, shirts, dresses, tops, hats, sports gear, skorts, socks and shoes.
There are shirts and jackets that display the crests of the primary and high schools in the district, as well as rows of generic bottle green, navy blue, black and white shorts, shirts and skirts.
“The prices start at $1 and go up to $35 or $40 for a really good jacket that might cost $80 to buy new,” Ms McDonald said.
“Just the other day we had a donation come in from Speers Point, so we’re not just covering the schools in the Morisset and Toronto area.”
Ms O’Reilly said the store was desperate to receive more donations.
Families with children who had left school, or outgrown their school garments, were invited to donate the old uniforms to give them new life and, in the process, help a local family to make ends meet.
“You can see how relieved some of the families are when they come in and find that we have the uniforms they’re looking for,” Ms O’Reilly said.
All About Uniforms is at Cooranbong Community Centre. It’s open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, and from 9am to 4pm on Sundays, until February 8 – after which it will reduce its hours.
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