This weekend, on my sole day off, I felt called to man a table at a Community Garage Sale on behalf of Christian Education. In my puny mind I was thinking: blow out some of this old equipment and make dollars for the School.
Here is what happened:
We had taken home a huge box of shoes left from last year by students.
Some were dirty but all were serviceable. I washed every pair in my frontloading washer and brought them all with me. I priced them at 50 cents a pair.
Around about 08:45am a very grungy looking chap walked over and was looking at the largest pair we had. He tried them on and fussed about and had my assistant look for another pair in the same size. It was 10 minutes of time for a $1 sale as he bought two pairs and then, threw his own shoes in the garbage. He thanked us very much and went on his way a happy man.
Two little girls showed up around 11am and were eyeballing the brandname sneakers in turquoise. They were absolutely without wear, and the one girl said to the other: "Darlene has a pair like that!!" This evidentally was a desirable thing and they both ooo-ed and aaaahed as we brought out another pair very similar obviously left behind by another Darlene-type girl. Another $1 sale and two very happy girls. They smiled and put a $5 bill in our donation jar and skipped away.
AS pasty-faced young man kept circling us looking at our monitors. They are the huge old fashioned kind but we want to keep them out of the landfill. He would go over to the side of the aisle, count his money and circle back around. On the 3rd circle I said to him: "2 for five bucks"?" Another sale.
A large box of magazines was priced to sell. A woman who had just finished the circuit stopped and said out loud: "Oh what a shame. I do scrapbooking with volunteers.... thats a great price but we would only be cutting them up. Can I come back and take a few..." Turns out she helps out with seniors and youth.
I told her to take the box and make a donation.
"I can't. I don't have any money left."
I handed her the School's card and told her to make a donation at some time in the future for Christian Education. She accepted that and put 52 cents in our jar and took the box.
We bundled everything else in my car and took it to the Thrift store.
I was thinking about it, and even if we were there only for the man who bought a backpack in perfect condition for $2 and then said: "it's a long walk over the Malahat" or the older lady who took cards and brochures and smiled at us and said "Bless you" God sure got it right.
It wasnt about money at all.
It was about helping.
Right on God!
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(We collected a grand total of $31 and some odd cents.)
