Desks get a new lease of life with brilliant Berkshire children’s charity

Several banks of desks at an office premises in Reading recently found a new home with brilliant Wokingham children’s charity First Days, which is doing vital work with families living in very tough circumstances in the local area.

A lucky break

Alessia Piras, HR administrator at the ActiveOps software company in Reading, joined A Good Thing in March 2023. By this point she was feeling rather desperate about rehoming several banks of desks that were no longer needed due to an office refurbishment. She had already spent several weeks ringing around local schools and chasing up nearby charities, but the furniture was proving tricky to rehome. A fellow tenant in the building mentioned A Good Thing to her, and she decided to give it a go:

“I uploaded the desks, but to be honest I didn’t expect anything to come of it. I’d had such bad luck so far with trying to find a new home! But I was really lucky: the First Days Children’s Charity replied on the very first day.”

Alessia was delighted to have a request come in so quickly via the platform. The office refurbishment project had been eating up a lot of her time, while she was still trying to do all the other things required of her by her job:

“Getting rid of things was a whole job in itself, while I already had a full-time job! An office refurb is a huge process. Using A Good Thing took all that work away.”

Thrilled to be matched

Alessia had found a homelessness charity to take some of the other things that ActiveOps did not need, but that charity told Alessia they wouldn’t be able to use the desks. So she was thrilled to be matched with First Days, who said they would be happy to take them.

First Days is a brilliant Wokingham-based charity that supports families living with a low income or experiencing financial hardship. The charity offers peer support and one-to-one coaching to parents, as well as distributing school uniforms, new baby essentials, beds and bedding, travel equipment, toiletries, safety items, furniture, toys and books, and much more. The current cost-of-living crisis, coupled with the long-term effects of the pandemic, has very sadly resulted in a huge increase in the demand for the charity’s services.

Alessia explained how straightforward things were once she had been ‘matched’ with First Days:

“It was a great process: we chatted on the phone, talked about measurements, and discussed how the charity would collect the desks. It took about a week to get things sorted, once we had been put in touch. First Days told me they were opening a new office, and really needed furniture for it. They already had their own van, as they use it to deliver supplies to families, so that made things easy. One of their volunteers drove over in the van to collect the desks, and I had asked a few colleagues to help take them downstairs.”

Off to a new home

First Days took a bank of four desks, and another bank of six, which Alessia was pleased about:

“I had really been struggling to find anyone who wanted the desks before I came across A Good Thing. It would have felt like such a shame to throw them away – they were lovely desks! I know lots of charities struggle to have the funds to buy things, so I’m really glad we managed to shift quite a few to a good cause. If it weren’t for A Good Thing we would have had to pay to get rid of the desks as waste, and I think it would have cost quite a lot. I was determined not to do that, so it was such a relief to have them rehomed! I had been quite stressed about the whole thing, to be honest.”

Alessia is very keen to use A Good Thing again in the future if the opportunity arises:

“I’ve seen some lovely things on the platform, it’s a super handy website. I would definitely use it again, it’s a great place to be able to post things, knowing someone will want them. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough! A Good Thing gives us the ability to give things away, and to connect with the local community. I think things often get thrown away because people just don’t have the time – but A Good Thing takes away that ‘thinking time’ – which can be the barrier.”

Connections are being created

Alessia described having ended up with things like plastic knives and forks after an event recently, and told us she’s convinced they will continue to find things in cupboards that can be rehomed. She explained that the office refit is not yet finished, and that there may well be more items to be given away in due course:

“Who knows, perhaps we will also just go direct to First Days another time. It’s so great to have that nice connection with them.”

When A Good Thing was set up, this was one of the things we really hoped would happen: a connection being built between businesses and charities within a local community – so we’re always delighted to hear this.

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