Yard Sale Raises Money for Ghana Book Shipment
Who would have thought that some old sweaters, stuffed animals, Christmas tree ornaments, and an incomplete set of golf clubs (circa 1971) could be worth so much?
A few months ago, Lakeland, Florida resident Cherish Welch learned, through an incredible stroke of good fortune, of a large amount of children's books that were soon to be discarded. Remembering what I had told her about RESPECT and its work with refugee populations worldwide, she contacted me to inquire about the possibility of shipping the books to a refugee school in Africa. She was subsequently able to obtain seven boxes full of them for this purpose.
After researching and contacting RESPECT founder Marc Schaeffer for ideas, we decided to send the books to Buduburam Community Refugee School in Ghana, which accommodates over 2000 refugee students and 55 trained teachers, but lacks a library. RESPECT Coordinator and Buduburam teacher Anthony Macedo Barlee confirmed the school's need for a library and expressed enthusiasm at the project. The problem was finding adequate funds to ship approximately 350 hardcover books to Ghana.
One day, while doing some much-needed spring cleaning, an idea struck: a yard sale! We rooted through our closets and drew up flyers with information on RESPECT, Buduburam Refugee Camp, and the 14-year civil war in Liberia responsible for the refugee status of most of the individuals dwelling in Buduburam. We distributed the flyers among friends, family, co-workers, and posted them in public places in an attempt to solicit item donations for the sale.
The response to the donation drive was overwhelming. Beginning three hours after the first flyer was posted and continuing on through the night before the sale three weeks later, the generosity of our community amazed us. Donations included more books, clothing, electronics, furniture, linens, toys, sports equipment, kitchenware, and more. We realized almost immediately that our yard sale had outgrown either one of our yards.
Hoping to find a site in Lakeland in a central, high-profile location to hold the event, I contacted several churches in the downtown area about hosting our sale. When I met with Peg Neely of First Presbyterian Church, her warm, enthusiastic response to RESPECT's work and the aim of the book donation project led me to believe that we had found the perfect site. Shortly after, we were informed that the church's board of directors had approved the sale for April 8th.
Two weeks were spent pricing, organizing, hanging clothes, picking up donations from locations around the city, and advertising. We placed an ad in the garage sale section of our local paper, The Ledger, which also printed information regarding the sale in their "Good Causes" section, a portion of the paper highlighting local events for charity. We posted flyers in every coffee shop, restaurant, and store that would let us. We talked incessantly to everyone about it.
In the process, we drummed up quite a bit of support and some great new volunteers. Brian Renner was responsible for the collection (and donation) of an enormous number of sale items. Aaron Roddenberry obtained three huge boxes of hangers for donated clothing and also collected and donated a massive amount of merchandise. Mary Kay Langford spent countless hours pricing items and managed to find five heavy-duty clothing racks for the sale. Chad Gaffney helped move a stunning amount of items from storage to the sale site (with a bad back, no less!). John Langford made a giant yellow "yard sale" sign and grilled hot dogs on the big day. Carlos Fossi translated for Spanish-speaking patrons. It was a great team!
On sale day, the customers started arriving, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at 7:05 AM, and didn't quit until 4:30 PM. We sold doughnuts in the morning and hot dogs, chips, and sodas in the afternoon. We talked a lot about RESPECT, struck many a bargain, haggled some with the professional yard-salers, laughed and cracked jokes, and enjoyed a beautiful day outside. Around 5 PM we packed up the remaining items and cleaned up the church grounds.
A final count revealed that the sale made $1,420.28 USD (about €1 124.87 EUR). Additional book donations received during our drive, ranging from preschool-appropriate picture books to college textbooks, brought the total number of books to over 700 (and growing). The yield of the yard sale is more than enough to ship the entire library to Buduburam Refugee Community School.
Cherish is currently cataloguing all the books and organizing them according to the Dewey decimal system as a functional library unit. While the books are being sorted and prepared for shipping, we're researching the safest, most efficient mode of sending them to Ghana. At the moment, USPS's "M-Bag" delivery is the most attractive option. We are now planning a second yard sale in June to raise funds to repeat the book shipment project for another refugee school. If you have any ideas or suggestions regarding this shipment, the project, or future plans, please contact me at respect.lakeland@gmail.com.