Bridport volunteers overwhelmed by donations for people of Ukraine

Donations are being collected at St Michael's Trading Estate

Author: George SharpePublished 10th Mar 2022

Volunteers at a drop off centre for Ukraine say they're overwhelmed by the town's kindness.

A unit on St Michael's Trading Estate has been transformed into a hub for accepting donations.

They're then sent further to Bournemouth and on to the Polish-Ukrainian border where they can help refugees.

Claire Nuttall is one of the founding members of the group. She said:

"It's a huge community effort, and that's what Bridport is perfect for. You put a call out, we've had so many volunteers so many donations. We've got four or five donation spots and then we've got other volunteers who go round daily and pick everything up, bring it back and we sort it here.

"It's quite overwhelming and a little bit mind-blowing really. It's been a very steep learning curve and we check the lists daily for what people in Bournemouth are asking for."

She said it all started with some friends:

"We just felt so useless and we felt like 'what can we do, what can we do.' Jane and Benny run Bridport Music, so she said well I have a shop that's open every day, I'll take donations and see where we can put it.

"By lunchtime she was overwhelmed, then we transferred it to my studio at St Michaels and about 4 o'clock that day I was overwhelmed."

Claire says they're hoping to be able to accept donations indefinitely but they are asking people to make sure items are clean and undamaged.

Donations can be handed in at St Michael's Trading Estate behind the Euronics Burwood electrical building.

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