As the 2nd Annual Christmas Angel Telethon began to be seen on the horizon, Living Ministries realized that we wanted to start this event with a balance of money already collected and donated to The Salvation Army. We racked our brains and finally Fundraising Vice-Chair, Linda suggested a garage sale. This was the first of many fundraisers to benefit The Salvation Army’s Christmas Angel Community Center.
The adventure began as we searched for a central location to pull off this event. Eventually we realized that having it The Salvation Army Corps in Longview, WA was a great way to unify the community while reminding them of one of our community’s great servants. Captain Lola was gracious enough to allow us use of the dining room which was warmer and dryer than any garage and Captain Dave was there to help where needed. We were also blessed by Pat, The Salvation Army staff member and several volunteers, including Randy, a formerly homeless man that has been blessed with a tremendous hand up by The Salvation Army, who were there to clean up the dining room and help set up.
Karen, Tom and Summer (me) of Living Ministries loaded up carts of donated items and were met in the dining room by Beverly and Jayne who run the Christmas Angel Community Center. We were so glad they had come to help. They were troopers while we stopped to meet people bringing in donated items, like Rick from Evangel Christian Fellowship, Mr. Parker who brought in tons of beautiful items, Trish, the Head Chef at The Salvation Army & Phil at Longview Housing Authority. For hours we sorted, priced and set up and then went home and tried to relax before the big day.
Even during the garage sale we were truly blessed by donations and people with kind words. It was great to see Pat of Copies Today Speedy Litho on a Saturday. I think the greatest part of the whole event was the camaraderie and connections we felt. Throughout the garage sale Jayne, Linda and I were busy taking care of people and making sure the garage sale items were tidy. We were joined by Living Ministries volunteer, Adam, who helped move heavy items until we could spare him long enough to go over to 4 The Long View Motel to help build a rack to store extra linens.
At the end of the day we were exhausted, but we still had to clean up. Captain Dave suggested that we leave everything set up so we could open the garage sale to members of The Salvation Army after church services. We agreed this was a great idea, especially since we all had decided to visit the next morning in order to meet Major Doug Tollerud and his wife who were visiting from District Headquarters in Seattle.
After a rousing service we opened up the dining room and church members purchased items as we all chatted. Denise and Rose of The Salvation Army stayed to help us box everything up and get it ready to be put into storage so that Home League could use it for their garage sale the next weekend.
We made over $300 for The Salvation Army but most importantly we made new friends. Thank you to all of you that supported us with donations, volunteerism and purchases. You made this event great!
>>View the pictures we posted on Facebook during this event.