Need furniture? TRUST Leonard!

A PENSIONER has called on Advertiser readers to help raise cash for good causes by checking his furniture recycling charity in Letchworth.

Super recycling scheme needs more customers!

Leonard Abrahams, 69, who set up the furniture recycling charity TRUST on Station Road, said four years after they opened, many people still don’t know they are here.

The charity was started by Leonard as an enterprise stripping wood out of old beds and selling it on, but it has developed into accepting donations of all kinds of furniture.

He suffers from a neurological condition called dystonia and initially set up the charity with the dual purpose of reducing landfill and raising cash to support the National Hospital for Neurology in London.

The charity now has two large warehouses on Station Road, as well as a shop unit and has gone on to support dozens more charities over the years.

TRUST – or The Recycling Unit Saving Timber – provides bargain deals on furniture which could prove especially useful for hard-up families feeling the pinch in the build-up to Christmas.

Customers can buy from the charity knowing that the profits will be ploughed into good causes.

But many shoppers do not seem to know much about the charity – so while the charity is very well stocked up on secondhand furniture, fewer buyers means less money being raised.

"We haven’t had any funding from outside – we’ve set it all up ourselves," he said.

"It’s all self-financing, but the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation has let us use these buildings.

"People seem to think our shop is all that we have. But we’ve got three buildings now and loads of quality furniture for sale.

"No one seems to know we’re here!"

Leonard – a former businessman who ran Leonard’s Carpets in the town for many years – and his small team of volunteers, has refurbished and many of the aging items for sale.

The charity is also offering volunteering opportunities for unemployed people who want to get an advantage in the jobs market.

"I really think we’re onto something here," the former furniture upholsterer said.

"There are thousands of unemployed young people out there, but we need volunteers to help us recycle the furniture.

"This could be a model for the whole country for helping get them back to work."

Anyone interested can call Leonard on 07910 458662.