Cardiff Samaritans Super Swap

What Is This?

It’s a charity swap. We’ve got a Samaritans Wristband, and we want to swap it for a Brand New Car.

Huh? How Does That Work?

We’ve got a Samaritans Wristband, and we’re offering to swap it for something. Then we’ll take that something and offer to swap that for something else. If each swap leaves us with something slightly better than the last, eventually we’ll rule the known universe. But we’re happy to stop before we get to that point - we just want a vehicle for the branch. So, every time we get a ‘thing’, you make us an offer, and we’ll trade with whoever suggests the best deal. And so on, until we have a shiny new car parked in our yard.

It’s all about increments. It seems unlikely that someone would just give us a car. I mean, what’s in it for them? Aside from the life-affirming warm inner glow that comes from doing a genuinely good thing. Obviously. Aside from that, though, what’s in it for them? Pretty much nothing, apart from one less car and a bit more space in their carpark. What’s much more likely to happen is that someone will give us a brand new car in exchange for something that’s pretty cool, but everso slightly less cool than a brand new car. And where do we get this everso-slightly-less-cool thing from? Why, we’ve swapped that for something that’s everso slightly less cool than the everso slightly less cool than a car thing. And so on.

Looking at it the other way round, we start off with a Samaritans Wristband. It’s a pretty cool thing, but it’s pretty small. And not really that valuable. We’ll swap it for something everso slightly better than a wristband. Maybe two wristbands. Or a pint of cider. Or box of chocolates. It’s up to you!

More Details…

We need you and your support and your ideas to make this work, and it’s very easy to get involved. If you have a good trade for us, leave a comment on the front page. Tell us what you have and where you’re from. When we’ve found an offer we can’t refuse, we’ll go ahead and make the trade.

The first few swaps, because they’ll be little things, will likely take place by post. Unless of course you live in our area, in which case we can do a shady exchange in a Cardiff back alley um, I mean, we can do the deal in person. When things get exciting and we get into bigger trades that aren’t appropriate for posting, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. We’ll find a way.

Please note that this whole project is based on trust and goodwill, so please only offer things that you genuinely want to swap. There won’t be any legally binding contracts to sign, but we’re hoping that people will be honest.

What’s The Target?

Ideally we want a high-end convertible sports car, fully insured and painted up in Samaritans Green with the logo on the side. How cool would that be? But we’re a modest bunch, so we’ll happily settle for a nice new small car, on the road and ready to go. In green. With our logo on. While we don’t wish to necessarily align ourselves with a specific make or model, something Ford Focus sized would be perfect.

Why Do We Want A Car?

At the branch, we do lots of community outreach in and around Cardiff and the South Wales Valleys. We have a dedicated team of volunteers who give up their time to attend community events, giving talks, presentations and training, offering on-site support, awareness and information. Many of the events we could attend in our catchment area have to go unsupported by us because of transport problems. A car would allow us to reach many more people, more often, and generally help us to continue our valuable service. A painted car would be even better - one key aspect of our work is awareness. The more people that see the car and recognise it as a Samaritans vehicle, the more people that are aware of our existence. We want everyone to know who we are, what we do and how to contact us if they need to.

And besides, a bus wouldn’t fit into our branch carpark.

Other Ways You Can Help

If nothing of ours takes your fancy, or if you have nothing of your own you want to part with, you can still help out. You could:

Link to our site from yours
Tell your friends, family, colleagues, pets, anyone who’ll listen
Donate some money to cover postage costs
Donate some money to the branch to cover branch running costs

Or whatever else you can think of! If you have ideas, we’d love to hear from you.