The recent Big Burien Waggin’ Tails Rummage Sale – held on Saturday, Aug. 17 – raised $3,035 for animals in need.
Here’s more info from organizer Gina Hess:
Okay Burien… drum roll please….now that all the bills have been paid and dust has settled the final results are in!!!!
The Big Burien Waggin’ Tails Rummage Sale raised $3035 for animals in need! Here’s the breakdown…
- $385 Cash Donations
- $175 Silent Auctions
- $1200 Jewelry Sales
- $1275 General Item Sales
A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE PEOPLE OF BURIEN AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES WHO MADE THIS ALL POSSIBLE WITH ALL OF YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS OF PERSONAL ITEMS AS WELL AS ALL THE SHOPPERS WHO SUPPORTED US!
The South Gate Masonic temple was a fantastic location for our sale and we were extremely successful with having constant business from before we opened at 9AM until we closed the doors at 4PM! We sold about 2/3 of all the donations and our amazing dream team of volunteers had the place packed up and completely emptied by 5PM… one hour after the sale ended!!!!!
During the sale there were purchases made that will even be touching people in other countries… for example a large box of thongs (aka flip flops) was purchased as a lot and is being shipped to help others less fortunate in a different country. All of the left over children’s clothing was picked up and passed on to a local non-profit to help mothers in need. So many beautiful things came out of this project, I just wished I knew and could share about all of them!
For those interested here’s a little background and story behind this event (it’s completely different from the Wags to Riches event typically put on by Burien CARES)….
The Big Burien Waggin’ Tails Rummage Sale fundraiser event was a 4 month long project sparked and organized by two determined Burien women who had a need to declutter their own home as well as to also fulfill on a community based project.
This fundraiser was not organized nor was it run by Burien CARES. It was organized and lead by my partner Merlann Martz and myself out of the goodness of our hearts and love for animals. Burien CARES was our chosen beneficiary along with AARF. Burien CARES did provide us and the community a donation collection site which we are extremely grateful for. The donations were picked up on a daily basis and transferred to 2 local storage units where everything was sorted, priced, and re-boxed in preparation for the big day by us and a small handful of volunteers. Countless hours of work went into this. Neither of us gals had ever even had a garage sale let alone organized anything like this before. We really have nothing to compare our results against however for a one day sale we feel pretty good about the amount we were able to raise.
Pulling off this project took a small army of volunteers, a city of very generous donors, as well as some key sponsors. We would personally like to thank those who were both directly and indirectly involved… We simply couldn’t have done it with out all of you!!!! We tried our best to remember and mention everyone, if we missed you let us know and we would be happy to add you!
In no particular order we would like to thank…
SPONSORS:
- South Gate Masonic Temple – Rick Chapman (hall rental/sponsorship)
- AAAA Mini Storage – Tanna Avila (hooked us up with great deal)
- i4 Big Graphics – Gina Hess (all event signage, marketing, hall rental)
- Laura O’Bannon – Artist – Logo Design
- Oregon Blueprint – Chris Underwood – donated banner printing
- TCC Printing and Imaging Michael Crumpacker – donated printed flyers
- B-Town Blog – donated online advertisement
- Brighton Jones – Christina Sylvester (regular Burien CARES volunteer) donated Mariner’s tickets for auction
- Salon in the Park – Kelly Wade (donated 3 out of 4 silent auction items and worked the sale)
- New Horizons Moving – Josh (owner) – saved the day at the last minute when U-Haul messed up our truck reservation – donated his time and truck to haul everything away after sale! Need a mover? Josh is your man! Locally owned and operated!
- Burien CARES – Debra George – provided place for donors to drop off items
- Burien Community Church – Alan Gage (loaned us clothing racks)
- St. Vincent De Paul – Georgie (saved bins and hangers for use during sale and even posted our flyer in their store!)
- Value Village – Burien – Dan (supplied us with many plastic totes for use in pre-sorting and sale)
- Goodwill – Tukwila – Supplied boxes and totes
VOLUNTEERS (pre-sale):
- Merlann Martz – organized the entire event, secured the location and sponsor for the event, spent countless hours day after day sorting and pricing and much more!
- Linda Ribail – spent several hours helping to pre-sort and price items in the storage units
- Megan Brickell – spent several hours helping to pre-sort and price items in the storage units
- Dee Johnson – outreach volunteer assisted with sorting and pricing items in storage units
- Nancy Bennett – outreach volunteer assisted with sorting and pricing items in storage units
- Stu Smith – transported donations to storage unit, picked up loaned clothing racks from church, hung banner at Masonic Hall
- Dave Schmidt – helped in hanging of banner on a moments notice
- Linda Stryker – assisted and advised in pre-planning and sharing knowledge and ideas surrounding non-profit fundraising
- Meredith Hailey – early idea generator and assisted with Masonic Hall connection
- Burien CARES staff and volunteers – managing daily donation drop offs and helping to load everything back up into trucks headed to storage unit, also for the help in cleaning up after the event
- All of you on Facebook who shared the heck out of the event and helped to promote the sale and facilitate donations
VOLUNTEERS (Friday and Day of Event):
- Merlann Martz – orchestrated all volunteer help for moving, venue set up, supplied food for volunteers, worked event first there last to leave everyday all day
- Janelle O’Bannon – worked entire event, all day set up on Friday and worked entire sale and clean up, PLUS…. came back next day after sale to clean up grounds surrounding Masonic Hall!
- Toni DeSantis – volunteer from Shorewood Streets of Garage Sales- worked entire sale both set up night before and all day at the sale and clean up
- Mike O’Bannon – worked entire sale and clean up, assisted customers to car when needed
- Liam O’Bannon – move team and set up on Friday, early set up day of sale and cashiered entire sale, clean up crew
- Laura O’Bannon – logo artist, move team and set up on Friday, early set up day of sale and cashiered entire sale, clean up crew
- Brad Martz – move team and set up Friday, worked entire sale and clean up, assisted customers to car when needed
- Kim Martz – worked entire sale and clean up
- Cathy Powell – worked entire sale and clean up
- Curtis Telgenhoff – advisor and organizer from Burien Community Church Rummage Sale, assisted with Friday night set up and worked sale Saturday
- Kelly Wade – Stylist at Salon in the Park (silent auction items donor – professional hair basket, Michael Kors watch, Tiffany necklace) worked entire sale
- Carla Robinson – jewelry specialist, priced and bagged all jewelry, worked entire sale
- Melissa Vasquez – Friday night set up
- Abbie Vasquez – Friday night set up
- Jadis Vasquez – Friday night set up
- Bernie Miranda – move team on Friday
- Carlee Olsen – move team on Friday
- Hiline Lanes – Pat and Valerie Johns – purchased tons of stuff PLUS stayed after sale to help box everything back up and clear out the hall
- Christina Sylvester – Burien CARES volunteer – secured auctioned Mariner’s tickets from workplace Brighton Jones, brought adoptable puppies to sale with another C.A.R.E.S. volunteer
- Josh West – New Horizons Moving – clean up and transport of leftovers to Goodwill
If you made it this far… again, from the bottom of our hearts we THANK YOU!!!!
