Rodney Stevens

For more than 13 years, Maclean’s R.E.Serve Op Shop has been recycling top quality clothing, electronics, furniture and bric-a-brac, donated by people of the region to provide great condition, less expensive options for people of the Lower Clarence.

Established in April 2009 at 10 Wharf Street, the name R.E.Serve stands for Religious Education Serving, and administrator Robyn Wood said the shop quickly achieved its aim of funding a fulltime Religious Education Teacher at Maclean High School.

“It’s compulsory to have religious education in schools for years 7 to 10, so we have a fulltime teacher at Maclean High School, we have a coordinator who coordinates religious education in all of the primary schools and we have volunteers who go out and conduct Scripture education in the local primary schools,” she said.

Mrs Wood said the religious education program is governed by the Lower Clarence Christian Education Board, which is comprised of members of churches from a variety of denominations.

“All of the profits from the R.E.Serve Op Shop go back into the community to fund religious education, we have also helped fund schools up to the Queensland border and south to Port Macquarie to start up boards to help run the same religious education program that we do,” she said.

“Over the years the R.E.Serve Op Shop has donated tens of thousands of dollars to schools in northern NSW to establish religious education programs.”

Mrs Wood said the R.E.Serve Op Shop motto is “helping others as we are being helped”.

“There’s not much that you can’t get at the R.E.Serve Op Shop, we have clothing, electrical goods and furniture, sporting goods, bric-a-brac, and we even have a craft section as well which is pretty popular,” she said.

“We have volunteers from several local churches supporting the management of the R.E.Serve Op Shop and about 40 volunteers involved in the running of the shop including selling items.

“We only stock very good quality clothes, we have a very high standard in this shop and the locals know this and really appreciate it.

“We wash and iron all the clothes we sell.

“It’s basically a one stop shop where you can just about get anything that you want, we have a very large turnover of stock because we keep the cost down.

“We also donate over 100 bags of clothing every month that go to Pacific Island countries, which is still good quality, just not quite good enough for us to sell, instead of it going into landfill.”

Next time you’re looking for a great quality new outfit, a piece of furniture, or household items, pay a visit to R.E. Serve Op Shop Maclean and you could pick up a recycled bargain.