Roger Parker, who has run Woodbridge pop-up card shop for over 30 years, set to hit £1 million fundraising milestone

A community volunteer who has run a pop-up card shop for over three decades is forecast to reach the £1 million fundraising mark this Christmas.

Roger Parker, 65, who lives in Ipswich with his wife Jill, has been managing the shop ran by the Woodbridge 41 Club Charitable Trust in the town since 1993.

Open from October to December, the outlet sells cards to raise money for a variety of worthy causes, including East Anglian Children’s Hospices.

This year the shop will operate from the old HSBC building in the Thoroughfare.

Roger said: ““This will be my 31st year, but the shop has been running for around 40 years and was previously run by the Woodbridge Round Table.

“It’s something I enjoy very much; It’s satisfying and rewarding and I’m very proud to be closing in on £1 million – something I’ve had in my sights and been talking about for 15 years!

“Over the years many landlords and agents have been kind enough to let us use their empty premises. As a result, we’ve been found in many of the shops in the Thoroughfare, St Mary’s Church Centre and Woodbridge library.”

Roger retired nine years ago, previously working for BT at Martlesham, and is a trustee of the Woodbridge 41 Club.

In his three decades running the shop it has raised £988,000 so far, and thus will easily hit the £1million mark this year.

Charities supported range from national to local, with the outlet selling EACH stock since 2001, raising nearly £42,000 for it.

Roger continued: “I enjoy working with so many different charities, both big and small; there are some wonderful causes out there and because we have very few running costs, almost the entire turnover goes to them.

“It’s a big team effort running the shop and I’m very grateful to all the volunteers who help in the shop, some of whom have been involved for 30 years.

“In the last couple of years we’ve raised just over £30,000 so while the total has dropped, it’s still a significant amount that will hopefully make a real difference.”

At its peak in 2007, the shop raised £61,500 for charities.

Run entirely by volunteers, it opens for business on Monday, October 23 and will close for the year on Saturday, December 16.

Volunteers from the charities help man the shop and team members from EACH team will be covering six Saturdays.

EACH community fundraiser Anna Bruce said: “This always proves popular with our volunteers at EACH - everyone enjoys the community aspect of it being a local shop that helps so many amazing causes.

“We’re always on the look-out for extra to help so please do get in touch if you’d like to lend a hand.”

Anyone wanting to assist should email anna at anna.bruce@each.org.uk.

The shop will be open from 10am until 4pm Monday to Friday and 9.30am until 5pm on Saturdays.