Jumble sale

We organise two jumble sales each year, in April/May and October/November. These raise vital funds to help us run our group.

This year’s sales are on Saturday 10th May and Saturday 4th October.

We’ve been holding our jumble sales for over 45 years and are hugely grateful to the local community who support us by donating items to sell, and coming along on the day to pick up a bargain or two.

Our next sale

Join us at our spring jumble sale on Saturday 10th May 2025, at St Mary’s Church Hall and car park, Church Path, SW19 3HJ.

Entrance is £1 from 1.30pm, and 30p from 2pm onwards.

We hope to see you there!

Donations

We gratefully accept most items including clothes, shoes, books and bric-a-brac.

We will collect from the local area of Merton Park on the Wednesday evening before the jumble sale (Wednesday 7th May 2025).  This is so our volunteers can get all of the items sorted in time for the event. The map shows the parts of the area where we send volunteers to collect from.

If you live outside this area and have items which you wish to donate, feel free to bring them to the scout hut marked on the map.

Reach out to us at hello@1stmertonparkscouts.org.uk if you have any questions about what we do or don’t accept and if you need any help with donating items.

Why do we hold jumble sales?

The purpose of raising funds is to contribute towards the running of the group and to subsidise subscriptions and activities. The proceeds of the jumble sale pay towards:

• Activities that children do on a weekly basis
• The purchase of neckerchiefs, woggles and badges
• The rent of the church hall
• The lease of the land on which the scout hut is located (in the church hall car park) as well as the shelters in the Glebe Field
• Maintenance of the hut and shelters, as well as provision of utilities
• Insurance
• Stationery and printing
• Leaders’ training, manuals, and uniforms (Leaders are volunteers, they don’t get paid!)
• Capitation payments to Scouts HQ (all groups pay towards national scouting activities)
• The Group Annual Camp, as well as individual camps for Beavers, Cubs, and Scouts
• Major items of camping equipment, including tents, tables and chairs, cooking facilities, lighting, safety and first aid equipment
• Special activities such as paintballing, go-karting, wall-climbing
• Contingency funding
• Supporting the Explorers

In 2022, we made £7,500 gross from jumble sales.

What we do with unsold items

We redistribute unsold items to other charities. Although we have a skip on site, we minimise its use to non-recyclable items.  Any unsold donations are redistributed to:

The Salvation Army, Christian Aid, Dogs Trust, Cats League, Oxfam, Save the Children, National Trust, British Heart Foundation, and towards supporting refugee families, especially Ukranian families during the present time. Unsold tea, coffee and food items go to the Wimbledon Food Bank