- DATE27 October 2020
A big part of NRG Service’s culture is a commitment to give back to those within the communities we operate in. It is always difficult to choose who to help or what they can do to ultimately help as many people as they can, especially as now more than ever charities and local community sporting group are really doing it tough. Staff put forward a number of suggestions, but it was the Salvation Army that stood out for the team as somewhere they could all get involved and give back regularly to hopefully make a difference to a lot of people.
The Salvation Army relies on donations of items such as clothing, brick-a-brac and electrical appliances that they then sell in their stores to help raise much needed funds to help those in need within our community. Due to demand, electrical appliances are one item that bring in very good revenue, but under government regulations, all second hand electrical appliances must be tagged and tested before they can be sold to the public.
The Salvation Army’s Toowoomba Store had built up a pile of appliances, where without knowing the working condition of the items, they could not justify paying an electrician to test and tag all of them and yet they could not sell them without this being done.
NRG General Manager, Dan Briskey said this was the perfect opportunity for us to provide our services and support and encourage our staff to get involved and feel like they were personally making a difference within the community.
“We have over 130 employees, many of them aged between 20-30. It has been great to see so many young people want to be involved and also coming back to work encouraging others to do the same,” he said.
Terry Morris our Electrical Maintenance Manager heads this project and each week he asks for volunteers to spend a couple of hours at the Prescott Street store.
“We have been doing this since July and to the credit of the team, we have never fallen short of having at least 2-3 volunteers wanting to participate each week,” said Terry.
“We have now tested over 130 items and leading up to Christmas we are hoping to be able to test a lot more, so the store never runs short of stock.”
Prescott Street Family Store Manager – Salvation Army, Robyn Hogan said, this has been an incredibly valuable service and has resulted in a substantial increase in demand for electrical items now they are available.
“Now having a wider variety of items has also helped attract more people to the store, increasing general sales,” said Robyn.
“It’s not always about monetary contribution, in-kind help or services can go a long way and at the moment, every little bit helps. Since March, we have been inundated with requests for assistance and honestly we could not have helped as many people as we have, without the kindness, generosity and support of local businesses.”
The team at NRG Services are very proud to be involved in helping the Salvation Army and would encourage other local businesses to do what they can to help, if they are able.