Mary's GIVE-AWAY-DAY

If you're lucky -- you have many people who bring joy into my life. And I'm lucky.

One of those people is Mary Mulari...

Spending time with Mary is ALWAYS a good time.

For one thing, Mary is quite the original thinker. This girl can go WAY OUT OF THE BOX...

Take, for example, the special event she hosted at her home last weekend....Here's the ad she ran in the local Shopper:

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ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

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I forwarded Mary's ad to the TMBC...and said, "we re definitely NOT taking a road trip to Aurora, Minnesota...right??"

We did NOT drive 11 hours for Mary's Giveaway Morning...but we could hardly wait to hear how it went...

So -- what brought this on, Mary??  And how did it go??

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From Mary:
 
It started when we got new windows in our home and I had to clear my sewing room so the installers could remove the old windows. I looked around and decided I needed to do something about my excess of sewing and craft supplies.

So I scheduled a giveaway day on August 31, placed an ad in the East Range Shopper and began to collect stuff to give away. There were boxes and IKEA bags and shopping bags and more, all stashed in the basement for the day.

Friends came to help me set up the garage on August 30. Tables were set up and before we had anything on the tables, a car drove up, a woman got out with FOUR ALDIs BAGS and asked where the sale was happening.

Nancy told her the giveaway was the next day and she took off in a huff. But, she did me a favor with her 4 bags. I made this sign for the garage wall. It went up early Saturday morning. I noticed the first car parked on the street at 7:50 a.m. and the sale began at 9.

Doug went out to take a photo of the people waiting for 9 when the garage door went up. The crowd was quite orderly, carried in one bag, and many expressed their thanks.

We collected $128 for the library and also discussed a possible giveaway in our community building with table fees and donations going to fund new carpeting for the library. I estimate that I got rid of about 75% of my goods so there are still some boxes to return to the basement, but they’ll go to the community sale, if one is held.

Giving all my stuff to the Goodwill or a thrift shop would have overwhelmed the shops. This way I think my goods went to people who will use (or stash!) them. A few kids came. A grandmother who works at the local nursing home learned about the giveaway from a friend who shared the ad from the Shopper so she invited her daughter and granddaughter to come from Hibbing.

We even had international visitors - two young girls who live in Brazil came with their mother and grandmother.

I appreciate my assistants: Sarah, Nancy, Renee, and Mary. Oh, and Doug who took the picture and got the crowd warmed up and laughing while they waited for the garage door to rise. 

Good Riddance!

Inside Mary's garage give-a-way...

The line-up on the day of the sale!

Tomorrow -- the REST of the story...