Nadene Crowther MBE retires
Nadene Crowther MBE
In this twentieth year since the Hospice Shops trading company, Share the Care Ltd., coming into being, Nadene Crowther MBE., has stepped down as a director and from active participation in running the affairs of our, highly successful, charity shops enterprise. All who are familiar with Hospice, and beginnings in 1983, will know it was Nadene's vision and drive from which our Isle of Man Hospice became a reality. But that's a longer story, one which we trust will be told in full in the near future. This page though, confines itself to Hospice Shops.
Twenty years is a long time by any standards so, to describe and do justice to Nadene's pivotal role over these years will not be easy - there is so much to include. The beginning, though, was in 1986 encouraging and helping the South Rushen Fund-raising Committee to run a shop in Port St. Mary. It was the success of this shop that convinced Management (now Governors) that charity shops were a viable income proposition.
Share the Care Ltd formed
The Publicity & Resources Committee gave the Shops project their highest priority. The trading company “Share the Care Ltd.,” was set up and the search was on. Nadene toured the estate agents and scoured Douglas, eventually finding a premises to lease at 88 Bucks Road, further up from our present shop at No.76. She then set about organising decoration, shop-fitting and establishing the infrastructure which would carry us through setting up all subsequent shops; namely gathering together a Volunteer force and establishing a system of collecting the goods we would be selling - clothes, shoes, books, bric-a-brac to mention just a few.
Nadene Crowther MBE -
Buckingham Palace 1994
It didn't take long before trading at No. 88 showed a healthy trading surplus, providing funds for patient care at St. Bridget's, so the search was on for premises number two. More of this later but time to mention Nadene's energy and organisational drive. The P&R Committee was convinced of a very bright future for Hospice Shops but it was mainly Nadene who turned plans into reality, working with Fundraising Committee and Staff, talking to and inspiring the early Volunteer force and negotiating with landlords and estate agents, supervising shop fitting, and often physically stocking the racks.
All this might seem enough enough to fill a normal day but Nadene was also Hospice Care's Deputy Administrator, deeply involved in just about every aspect of Hospice Care planning, which in the mid 1990s included all stages of Scholl wing planning to the opening and expanding extra patient care facilities. It was in recognition of Nadene's hard work and dedication that, in 1994, she was awarded the MBE.
Shops Administration in place
As the shops grew in number, a delegated administration, of necessity, grew with it; this was a business in every sense and run as such. Day-to-day routine soon ran under a Manager but Nadene was involved in much of the forward planning and was always on hand to help our Managers with the benefit of her experience. Early decisions included acquisitions of vans for collection of donated furniture and moving goods from shop to shop and salerooms and engaging drivers and saleroom staff.
Over the twenty years Shops' growth has been phenomenal reaching a net trading profit in 2007 of £458,000 - all for Hospice's patient care. So, how to sum up Nadene, to acknowledge and thank her for the last twenty years. She would be the first to acknowledge the role played by her Share the Care friends and colleagues, and the help through all these years from the Scholl Foundation, but there is one inescapable fact: we have a highly profitable Hospice Shops organisation which did not happen by accident. Nadene's drive and organisational skills motivated and enthused all involved through these last twenty years and we still have an effective and happy organisation.
We will all miss Nadene but she can be happy in the knowledge that she leaves a superb Shops' Volunteer force, Administration, and Board of Directors who all know what they are doing and do it well; all members of a Team who enjoy what they do and are determined to keep on going forever upwards providing funds for inpatient and community care. In a phrase, she leaves Hospice Shops in safe hands.
Shops and Salerooms:
1988 - Douglas, 88 Bucks Road
1989 - Castletown, Arbory Street
1989 - Douglas, Richmond Grove Saleroom opened
1990 - Ramsey, Bourne Concourse
1992 - Peel, Douglas Street
1994 - Douglas shop moved to 76 Bucks Road, Douglas
1995 - Port Erin, Orchard Walk
1995 - Port Erin, Orchard Walk Saleroom opened
1997 - Douglas Saleroom moved to Allan Street
1998 - Ramsey shop moved to 83 Parliament Street
1998 - Ramsey Saleroom, Parliament Street
1999 - Onchan, 2 Main Road
2002 - Castletown Shop refurbished
2003 - Peel Shop moves to Michael Street
2005 - Douglas, 88 Bucks Road refurbished
2006 - Ramsey Saleroom moves to Waterloo Road
2006 - Onchan moves to 35 Main Road
2008 - Douglas, 76 Bucks Road - Fancy Dress Shop