Crowds flock to opening of shop
On a beautiful spring day, The Shop at Strood Green opened its doors for the first time to a large crowd waiting patiently on the freshly mown green outside. John Beavan, one of our older Strood Green residents, shared the honour of cutting the ribbon with young Toby Songhurst, who at 8 years old is our youngest volunteer! The press were there in force, and the crowds didn't lessen all day. At one stage it was taking nearly an hour to reach the till (which had only become fully operational about 14 hours previously!).
We had to rely on everyone's patience as the shop was overwhelmed with the amount of customers. It has been a great start!
The hard work continues for the committee for a little while, as we get to grips with new routines and staffing arrangements, but this is the time to say a huge thankyou to those volunteers like Jim Tucker, Ant Hamilton, Mike Palmer, Richard Ramsden, Hilary Budd, David Ludlow and many others who turned out to be fantastically helpful and tireless in the last few days when we worked against the clock to get the shop open.
