Clay Cross church hosts third successful 'Free Baby Clothes Pop Up Shop'

Local teacher and mum-of-one, Esther Bollands has helped organise and host the pop-up event alongside her husband Mathew and members of Clay Cross’ C4 Church.

As pastor of the church, Mathew provides a convenient and welcoming space to host these events, the first two of which took place in August and November of last year. Proving just as popular as these, the latest event – which took place on the 8th April, saw over 100 people attend.

Esther’s pop-ups are a lesson that the early-bird really does catch the worm as attendees were said to be eagerly waiting outside the church well before the doors had opened.

According to Esther. “It was really good. Almost all the stock that we had pretty much got cleared within 25 minutes, so it was very popular again.”

Donations that were being given away included clothes – for children aged up-to three-years-old, toys, nappies and other items. Chocolate eggs were also given away to celebrate the Easter holiday.

The couple came up with the idea for a ‘Free Baby Clothes’ pop up around the time of the birth of their son Judah in the summer of last year.

Esther said: “A lot of my friends had just had babies, or had children who were still only young. They passed on a lot of clothes their kids had grown out of, for my child, and we just ended up with so much stuff”. She added: “We thought it would be a really good initiative through church to help the community by getting people to donate the things their children no longer needed, and then people could come and take free clothes or toys. With the cost of living crisis we thought this could really help people.”

Although some donated items were left, anything that wasn’t picked up has been packed away, ready for someone else who may need it at the next pop-up. A date for the next event has yet to be confirmed, but Esther and Mathew are hoping to organise another event sometime over the coming summer holidays.