Peter Collins and Gareth Hayes.

THE STORY

Meet Peter Collins from Hope Drop Inn. Over the last three-and-a-half years, Peter and his team have had a simple mission: to spread hope. They started doing BBQs from a caravan in Derry City, progressed to a coffee bus, and have now graduated to a workshop in the small (but mighty!) community of Newton Cunningham. They take donated pieces of furniture and upcycle them, giving them TLC and a new lease of life. “We love to see what’s broken, brought back to life.”

The profits from furniture sold in the showroom help to fund projects in Zambia and Burkina Faso which provide education to orphans and medical equipment to impoverished small communities that have been devastated by AIDS.

Hope Drop Inn gives purpose to those who work there, and community to those who visit. “In our own lives we have found hope to be so important, and we have found hope along the way. It’s lovely to be able to share that and try to be a blessing to people’s lives.”

Peter and his team have transformed pianos into writing desks, fallen trees into dovetail benches, and old church pews into table tops. They have helped turn people who were struggling in life into community heroes, and disabled volunteers who’ve never held a hammer before into skilled artisans.

THE WHY

Our priority is people. Souls over sales. We’re here to journey with people. There are people that come and work with us who are retired and want to share their skills, and want to fill their days with something worthwhile. Then there are those in the community who are struggling, and looking for hope, and we try to give them that.

THE CHALLENGE

Learn carpentry or how to paint, and learn how to upcycle. It can be like therapy. It’s amazing what you can reuse. Sometimes people drop a piece of furniture in, then we upcycle it, and they come back into the shop and buy it back, because now it looks amazing.

THE HOPE

I find hope in the whole restoration process. Repairing something is like music or art. I was thinking the other day, sitting in front of benches that are 160 years old, from a church in Belfast, that used to seat 2,000 orphans: If these benches could tell a story, they’d tell an amazing story. And here we are now, turning them into tables, and the profit from those is going to feed, clothe and house orphans. It’s come full circle. And that’s just beautiful.

THE RECOMMENDATION

BOOK - John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken.

To find out more visit www.dropinn.net or follow Drop Inn on Instagram - @dropinnhq