An Adelaide charity has been asked to quickly depart its warehouse home, leaving volunteers fearful the organisation\u2019s 50-year-history could come to an abrupt end.<\/p>\n
South Pacific School Aid collects books no longer needed by South Australian schools, then sends tens of thousands a year to schools in the South Pacific Islands and remote Indigenous schools in South Australia. <\/p>\n
For the past eight years, the volunteer-run charity has run on a shoestring budget out of an Underdale warehouse space, generously offered rent-free by the landlords. <\/p>\n
But volunteers have been told the arrangement finishes at the end of August as new owners take over the building \u2013 sparking a desperate search for a similar free or cheap space.<\/p>\n
Chairman Marco Di Girolamo, 66, said the charity\u2019s limited funds \u2013 raised at market stalls and from donations \u2013 were spent on about 60 pallets of books a year, which cost $700 to $900 each to ship.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur fundraising hasn\u2019t been geared towards raising money for rent,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have funds, some which have been from bequests and so on, but to rent a warehouse that size, even in the outer suburbs \u2026 would soon go through all our savings in a couple of years.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis could be a death knell for us, if suitable warehousing can\u2019t be found.\u201d <\/p>\n
The retired medical scientist said packing up and relocating the books from the present warehouse would also be stressful. <\/p>\n
With a laugh, he explained: \u201cMost of us are retirees, so we\u2019re not very active, moving-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Di Girolamo said the group of 20 to 25 volunteers was hopeful a spot could be shared with another charity \u2013 but nothing suitable had yet been found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Adelaide charity has been asked to quickly depart its warehouse home, leaving volunteers fearful the organisation\u2019s 50-year-history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[94090,94095,94099,94087,41512,94094,94082,50587,37114,94085,69261,65682,94098,94079,42435,94070,37834,94081,94069,94071,395,94096,94075,94073,94097,94078,6466,21,94083,11995,94076,13627,48271,76081,94101,11016,94084,8937,94091,94072,67495,94089,94100,94102,13288,83734,972,121,94086,94093,94080,57869,94105,59799,42312,63430,36523,94092,38263,36541,94106,49036,94088,64908,94103,94074,94077,94104,1794,31772],"class_list":["post-69736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-s-50-year-history","tag-s-limited-funds","tag-700-to-900","tag-20-to-25-volunteers","tag-50-years","tag-50-year-history","tag-50-year-old-adelaide-charity","tag-50587","tag-a-couple","tag-a-death-knell","tag-a-desperate-search","tag-a-laugh","tag-a-shoestring-budget","tag-a-similar-free-or-cheap-space-chairman-marco-di-girolamo","tag-a-spot","tag-a-warehouse","tag-a-year","tag-about-60-pallets","tag-abrupt-closure","tag-abrupt-death","tag-adelaide","tag-all-our-savings","tag-an-abrupt-end","tag-an-adelaide-charity","tag-an-underdale-warehouse-space","tag-another-charity","tag-august","tag-austrlia","tag-bequests","tag-books","tag-desperate-warehouse-search","tag-donations","tag-funds","tag-its-life","tag-its-warehouse-home","tag-market-stalls","tag-messenger-subscription-box-version-2the-retired-medical-scientist","tag-money","tag-mr-di-girolamo","tag-needy-kids","tag-new-owners","tag-nothing-suitable","tag-our-fundraising","tag-remote-indigenous-schools","tag-rent","tag-rent-free","tag-schools","tag-south-australia","tag-south-australian-schools","tag-south-pacific-school-aid","tag-suitable-warehousing","tag-tens-of-thousands","tag-that-size","tag-the-arrangement","tag-the-battle","tag-the-books","tag-the-building","tag-the-charity","tag-the-end","tag-the-group","tag-the-landlords","tag-the-organisation","tag-the-outer-suburbs","tag-the-past-eight-years","tag-the-present-warehouse","tag-the-south-pacific-islands","tag-the-volunteer-run-charity","tag-this-charity","tag-volunteers","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}