Printed in the Guardian May 2, 2011. Article by Mary MacKay.
GUARDIAN PHOTO BY MARY MACKAY Gary and Sonja Gagnon, past organizers of the Mikinduri Children of Hope Yard Sale, present organizing committee member Marilyn McKay, volunteer Mary Gard and foundation president Ted Grant a few of the donated gems from a Superior Sanitation storage container that will be sold at the upcoming event on May 7.
Volunteers for the Mikinduri Children of Hope yard sale are pulling together the seventh annual 4.5-hour May 7 blowout bash of donated items to raise funds for projects in Kenya
The annual Mikinduri Children of Hope yard sale is an event of major organizational proportions.
But every year a team of dedicated volunteers manages to pull it all together for a massive single-day 4.5-hour blowout sale of recycled and some new items to the public to raise funds for the organization’s projects in Kenya.
“Most of the organization (part of it) is like an iceberg, 90 percent of it takes place before the actual sale,” says sonja Gagnon, who is past organizer of the sale, along with husband Gary Gagnon. There is now a committee of nine organizing the annual event.
Now in its seventh year, the yard sale, which will be held on Saturday, May 7 from 9a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the charlottetown Civic Centre, has become a staple in the minds of economical shoppers and people eager to find a new home for their donated item and help this charitable cause at the same time.
mikinduri children of Hope Foundation president ted Grant remembers when the spring event began.
“When we started we needed to find ways of raising money to start our fledgling operation and one of the things we came up with was a yard sale,” he says.
The first sale was held in Cornwall but the event was eventually moved to the Civic Centre in Charlottetown.
That first year there were about 25 tables filled with donated items for sale.
“In the past four or five years there have been so many things come in that we have not only 150 tables groaning with stuff, but the floor is covered with (items) as well,” says Gary.
The yard sale displays have been refined over the years to include display sections, like one mihgt see in a department store.
“The way it is organized has been built on the (past) suggestions of the volunteers. We have different people who are really, really excellent at organizing. The books are organized; housewares is organized, so everything has a place,” Sonja says.
Because it’s a single-day event everything must run as smoothly as possible to ensure as many things as possible find new homes and that funds are raised to continue the foundation’s work in Kenya.
Mary Gard is the super-efficient volunteer organizer of the bountiful book section of the yard sale.
“Most book sales you go to the books are just put out according to the size of the book or hard (or soft) covers,” she says.
“But I try to organize it into topics, everything from romance to history to travel, so that when people come they can see the whole sale but if they’re interested in a specific type of book then they can go to that section and find what they’re looking for.”
Lew Black is in charge of the volunteer crew who gather the items from the public if need be and also transport them from various holding facilities and people’s basements and garages to the Civic Centre on the day before the sale.
“It’s a very busy day,” Black admits.
This year, a huge donation of new items from Christmas Discounters in Charlottetown will also be available, along with all the other donated items that are all priced to sell.
“Basically we keep (prices) really low because we want all of this stuff to turn over,” sonja says.
Anything that is not sold is passed on to other fundraising organizations.
The first year the Mikinduri Children of Hope Yard Sale raised $2,000; last year’s total came to about $14,000.
“Over time the yard sale has grown enormously, such that we have all kinds of things from all over the island that people have donated,” Gary says.
