May 2015, the GGB Team
When May came around, so did the need to remove some clutter from our houses, garages and sheds. This year, our clever board member, Sharla, thought why not have one big garage sale where the proceeds go to GGB? We asked just a few friends for donations and got a huge response back.
We had a great selection of items donated to us: houseware, lawn care, sports equipment that included quite a few bikes, costumes, brand new and gently worn clothes for all ages, books for all ages, DVDs, Wii games, DVD player, video camera, brand new bread maker, collectible porcelain dolls, children’s toys, furniture, brand name purses, luggage and so many others. A brand new IKEA bunk bed didn’t even have the chance to be displayed at the garage sale as it was snatched up as soon as it was mentioned on Kijiji!
The steady stream of people coming for both days, made it a big success. It could have been the hot dogs, chips and pop that we had out, or Sharla’s popular children, but our garage sale attracted many of the neighbouring children. They were definitely some of the most memorable customers that we had as they were constantly on the lookout for items to decorate one the children’s tree-house with. They enjoyed sitting on the comfortable lounge chair so much that they ran home to scrounge enough change to buy it. It was a sight to make everyone smile when each one picked up one side of the chair to carry it away.
What was not sold at the end of Saturday afternoon were packed up and donated to Hope Mission. They use donated items as needed for the homeless, and what they cannot use, they put into their thrift store called the Bargain Shoppe.
This event would not be possible without all the people, volunteers and board members alike, who helped with making the signs, posting them along the roads, sorting and pricing all of our donated items, helping to sell them,and helping to pack up afterwards.
Special mention goes out to the following people:
- Tara Reber for helping behind the scenes with setups and signs, and lending us the tables
- Hoffman family
- Long Lan Nguyen
- Mrs. Sandra Oliver for helping us sell
- Jack Nguyen for donating goods, helping out all Friday morning, lending the hot dog roller, and helping loaded items into customers’ trucks
- Mostafa Moharram & Darron Ta for helping sell, cleaning up and packing
- Claudio Fuentealba Barnachea
- Dayami Leavey
- Irma Isla Lapak
- Mj Marquicias Borres
- Eileen Burke
- Bryan Alain
- Chantel Tonner
- Jodi Edge
- Madi & Ty Lupul
- Mateo Liem
- Marcil Family
- Ta Family
- Tong Family
- numerous people from AGLC
- Castlebrook friendly neighbours!
We had such a fun time that there is a very good chance it will become one of our annual fundraising activities.