Another chance donation to the Cambridge Hospice Shop has given a decades-old item a new and timely purpose.
The front page of the scrapbook gives no indication of its contents.
When a well-thumbed scrapbook came in, nothing about the front cover and its picture of a rabbit and duck cuddling up suggested its origin.
But when shop manager Justine Webb-Elliott flicked the book open, she found printed on the first page, ‘Memories of Blind Welfare Society’.
“That caught my interest, but I got busy and just put it aside,” she said. “Later on, I took a good look at the book and thought it would probably be an important record for the relevant organisation, so I contacted the Citizens Advice Bureau. Finding the right people didn’t take long at all.”
Webb-Elliott contacted the Cambridge Blind and Low Vision Support Group, headed by president Marilyn Kennedy. Both she and the group’s secretary Karen Voss were delighted with the timing of the scrapbook’s return.
The inside page that gave Justine Webb-Elliott a clue to the scrapbook’s origins.
This year marks the group’s 50th anniversary and a big celebration is earmarked for October 16 at Mighty River Domain.
They group is working on the compilation of a table showing the history of the organisation, and the old scrapbook and its treasure trove of photographs, papers, letters and the like will be a great addition.
“This is a great find for us, particularly as it’s an important anniversary for us,” Kennedy said. “We’re very grateful to Justine for tracking us down.”
This isn’t the first time Webb-Elliott has tracked down someone with ties to an item donated to the store. In August last year she found the family linked to a precious old Plunket book, although the search for that happy ending took considerably longer.
Cambridge Hospice Shop manager Justine Webb-Elliott, centre, flanked by Cambridge Blind and Low Vision Support Group president Marilyn Kennedy, left, and group secretary Karen Voss, showing some of the images in the scrapbook. Photo Viv Posselt
