Second Chance
Everyone deserves a second chance. Rural towns diversify and reinvent themselves. Vacant buildings are filled with new purpose. Unwanted household items find new owners. And people are given a second chance to work and provide valuable community service. I really do like second chances.
Minyip Progress Association member, Keith Daniells, looks after the Saddlers Second Chance store. When I visit on a Friday afternoon, I am under pressure to grab a quick photograph before he heads off for a game of golf. On Tuesday I ring back for a bit more information. Keith tells me the store isn’t open, but he’s popped in to do the books and at the same time managed to sell $70 of goods.
‘Because of COVID we’re only open Wednesday to Friday up until 2.00pm at the moment, but my mobile is on the front door. People can call me any time as I live just around the corner.’
After forty years of living and working in the top end of Australia, Keith and his partner Diane decided they wanted a change of lifestyle. While Keith was over in the USA helping their daughter, Diane was given the mandate of finding them a new home.
‘A golf course and no traffic lights,’ were Keith’s only instructions. Hence Diane chose Minyip in the Wimmera region of Victoria and it has been their home since 2009. It didn’t take them long to connect up with the local community either.
‘You have to get involved in a little town. We threw ourselves into things,’ admits Keith.
During his time as President of the Minyip Progress Association from 2017-18, Keith helped to drive a campaign to beautify the empty shop windows including the current premises of the Saddlers Second Chance store which raises funds for local projects.
‘We got really lucky. I contacted the owner of this shop and he said, “no problem.” Then he rang back and asked if we could find a use for the shop at no rent.’ Their generous landlord also pays the power bill and is having a toilet and shower installed to improve the amenities.
Keith describes the enterprise as part Opportunity Shop and part Second Hand. ‘Everything is donated. We sell whatever we can fit in the shop. Everything from a fork to a spare wheel for a car.’
Since opening the shop has given a welcome boost to the Progress Association’s fundraising capacity. ‘Our takings vary from day to day, but we average $1,000 per month.’
Recently a Professor of philosophy who lived in the town for many years bequested his entire book library providing a great boost. ‘Over 3,000 books plus 600 plus vinyl classical LPs,’ Keith explains. ‘During the Labour day long weekend we raised $3,000 which is going toward the new fuel station.’
Keith jokes that he needs to go back to full time work for a rest but quickly adds how much he enjoys being in the store.
‘I get to meet people from all walks of life. A lot stop in on their way through from Donald and Dimboola. I have everything from a Professor of Literature chatting about the books to a local lady who wanders in regularly to chat about life.’
So, has it been a good move I wonder?
‘We love the people. It’s like a big family here,’ Keith says.
KERRY ANDERSON: Founder of the Operation Next Gen program and author of ‘Entrepreneurship: It’s Everybody’s Business,’ Kerry works with small businesses and rural communities to help them embrace new opportunities. In 2018 she was named as one of Australia’s Top 50 Regional Agents of Change. READ MORE