Day O' Yard Sale Update

We finished the second day of the school fundraising yard sale yesterday.  It was a long, hot, sweaty slog.

We raised close to $6500 dollars.  Boo yah!

The kids and their lemonade stand raised over $330 of that by themselves.

The Peanut turned out to be a serious force at selling lemonade and water -- she did an awesome job, appearing to have inherited both our work ethics (poor kid).  She was absolutely amazing -- so we are taking her out for ice cream this afternoon as a reward.

Things I learned?

First, the same old lesson: that a few of the people end up doing all of the work, even though everyone else gets to benefit from it.  How to change that?  Wish I knew, but it has been that way for a while and I'd love thoughts on how other school parent groups or others have motivated people to get off their butts and help out more.  Thoughts?

Second, that people have the capacity to be amazingly generous and kind.  And that being as generous and kind and truly compassionate as you can be feels really, really good.  We had several families with children who were really needy that we just loaded up with clothes and bedroom linens and pillows and anything else they wanted.  I managed to tuck some books into the boxes for  the kids, too, because it's just the sort of thing I do.

These folks still made us take a donation of a dollar or two, because that's the way folks are around here -- for the most part, folks like to pay their own way through work or money earned from it, even when they have fallen on hard times.  And we let them give it, even though it was probably needed cash because maintaining some pride is so important when you are at the edge, isn't it?

We also made sure the kids got some toys, and let them pick them out themselves.  I wish I could have bottled the smiles because they were wonderful.

That was the best part of my day.  Truly.

Third?  People will shoplift anywhere.  I knew that from my prosecutor days, but it really hits home when you catch someone trying to steal on church property and the school and its construction for which you are raising funds is right across the street in plain view for everyone there.  But we pretty much expected it at some point, so when it happened it wasn't really a surprise -- just a disappointment.

Fourth, when I get tired and punchy, I tend to ramble.  A lot.  Sigh.  (Note this post length, and ask yourself if I'm still tired this morning.  lol)

Fifth, that kids really take in the anxiety and information around them and that, as parents, we need to remember that they often have a much greater capacity to both understand what is going on and a concomitant need to help act on making things better. 

The Peanut came to me all upset yesterday morning because they hadn't had many customers at the lemonade stand.  It was a cool morning and it was early, so folks weren't all that thirsty.  Frankly, at that hour, we really only had the hardcore yard sale folks there anyway, and those folks always bring a cooler with sandwiches and drinks with them in the car, or they didn't have all that much money to spend and they weren't spending it on something extra no matter how cute the kids were.

In any case, she had been going from person to person and asking them if they wanted lemonade or water or cookies or whatever else they had and offered to hand-deliver it if they wanted to buy something.  No one was really buying, and several of the other kids there gave up and went to play for a bit until we had a better crowd.  Not our child, though -- she was determined.

After a long series of "no" responses, she came over to me with tears in her eyes and said "Momma, they aren't buying very much today, so we haven't made much money.  Are they going to have to close the school if we don't sell more drinks?" 

How heartbreaking and yet adorable is that?

I gave her a hug, explained that they wouldn't be closing school and that they had done such an awesome job the last two days and told her how proud I was of her.  And then spent a little time explaining how a lot of the folks there didn't have much money to spend at all, and they couldn't get a water even if they were thirsty because they needed to use the money for school clothes or for work clothes or something else.  And that even spending a quarter on a toy for their kids was a lot for some of these folks.

So she pulled out a dollar I had given her from her pocket and offered to let me have it to buy some toys for some kids who were there with their mom nearby.  I could have cried, it was so cute.

I gave her $5, and told her to bring some water to an elderly couple who was browsing and looked really thirsty and to a couple of families with kids, and tell them that someone had given them some water as a gift.  And that she could choose who to give it to, but that the elderly couple definitely had to be one of the choices (they were looking really frail, frankly, and needed something to drink).  

I don't know what made her happier -- the $5 that got to go in their donation jar or the fact that she got to randomly give gifts of water to people for a little while.

But then it started getting warmer and business perked up, and she worked her butt off all day long selling drinks.  At the end of the day, when it was just her at the stand, she made me come over and sit while she tried to scare up more business -- she didn't want to leave it unattended in case people came over for their water personally.  I swear she has a future in running collections or a nonprofit donation drive for someone.  It was really adorable.

By the end of the day, several kids had gotten free donuts and lemonade and water, courtesy of a few more fives from mom.  And The Peanut managed to wangle bigger donations out of some community leader types who stopped by the sale to chip in -- getting $20 from one person and then chasing him down to make him take the glass of lemonade he had said it was for -- "I didn't want you to pay for something and then not get it," she said when she handed it to him.

Did I mention we are taking her for ice cream today as a reward?  Now you know why.

In any case, I'm exhausted and all my joints are enormous this morning from the combination of excessive heat, standing a lot and lifting and toting.  But it's worth it.  And we raised a lot more than we had thought we could at the beginning of this.

The rest of the leftover clothes and knicknacks went to several local groups that do charity work with needy families and disaster relief work and such, with the last few boxes headed out to Goodwill off the parish priest's lawn at the end of the day.

Today?  It will be a day of doing not much of anything.  And I'm really looking forward to it.

PS -- They finally got the news video up about the sale.  The Peanut shows up on it near the end and is a little shy but cute as can be.  Thought family and friends would get a kick out of it.   You can watch it here.

(Photo via stephanie *.)