This past fall, I participated in a neighbourhood yard sale because I had to get rid of stuff that I didn’t get a chance to in the spring yard sale season. What I thought was just a street sale ended up being much more. The participating neighbours had made a decision to help out another neighbour by donating all their proceeds to a single mother who had a child with severe Cerebral Palsy . Check out www.hopeforthomas.com. I was so touched by this show of community spirit; I searched for more stuff that I could sell.
Every spring and fall I see yard sales for Cancer, but rarely have I seen a community come together like this. In fact, that’s the first time in my life living in Toronto. Yes, there are church sales and other organized donations, but not at this “street” neighbour to neighbour level.
Another time was when we were on one of our family trips down to Cape Cod. We decided to take a break from the beach and explore the local community and we stumbled upon a church yard sale. The Ladies Auxiliary of West Denis organized the sale to collect money to help the local girls and boys go to college. There were hotdog vendors, balloon clowns, a band playing typical American oldies music. It was so New England, I felt like I was in a Martha Stewart photo shoot. It was wonderful and inspiring to see such joy in giving to the education of the young people in their community.
It’s the idea of seeing the face of the person you give your donation to and knowing that you’ve helped their lives directly, that affects me most. So I’m putting out a challenge. Once you’ve decided what needs to go and packed it up in boxes, think about how you can directly affect someone in your community by giving or doing something.
Otherwise, these are great organizations that will help you sell your stuff, organize an event or come to your home and take away your unwanted stuff:
Having lived in Toronto for many years in the past, I was in awe of this story! I live on a small Gulf Island and what you described about your neighborhood street sale is what often occurs here in our community. If a house burns down, everyone digs deep to help rebuild…if a child dies, a collection is taken to help the parents with the funeral costs. What I’ve seen in terms of the human spirit has rejuvenated me here and I can surely imagine that in the big city it had a huge impact on many. Well done! We need more of this reconnecting on a human level to appreciate that we are all in this journey together.