The St. Mark's Mission and Outreach Committee, again, hosted the Ten Thousand Villages Sale on Saturday, October 24th, 2008. The total sales figure for the day was $12,050.00 before taxes. This was a small increase over last year which had been $11,800.00 in sales. Our volunteer sale coordinators, John and Louise, visiting from Burlington, Ontario (although Louise grew up in Bras D'or, Cape Breton!), told us that the proceeds from $3,500 in sales would feed and provide for a family of four for one year. We were able to assist in the care of 3.4 families for the next year. That feels good to me!
"Many hands make light work". Thanks to Carol Ann who got a key to open the Church when she say our Ten Thousand Villages people had arrived a bit early. Thanks to all the men who helped unload the truck and the many volunteers who helped to unpack and set up the merchandise on the Friday evening. We had a few sales Friday evening to practise our skills on the computer and get us off to a great start! Special thanks to Jean Wilson who hosted John and Louise for the night. She has done this many times and we appreciate her opening her home this way. She picked them up and dropped them off and fed them supper on Friday night!
Saturday was a glorious sunny day - just right for lots of shoppers to come out and start their Christmas shopping. We were even more efficient with three checkouts - one for cash only and the others were connected to debit and credit card lines. Thus meant that we didn't have the massive lineups as in other years and made for a more relaxed shopping atmosphere and happier customers. Thanks to all the computer operators, the wrappers and cash/change makers. Thanks especially to Barb who came and made the debit and credit transactions so smooth!
Lunch was provided for the workers with yummy homemade chilli, rolls and chocolate chip cookies. The Beavers were in the Narthex providing a healthy snack as they held their Apple Day.
At 3:30 p.m. there were still people shopping and it was a very welcome sight to see FIVE men waiting to help us pack up! They were so efficient that at one point we had to get a box of packing material off the truck to finish up the last table of dishes. The floor was swept and all the goods were packed and on the truck by 5 p.m.- a record cleanup! Our Ten Thousand Villages team were very complimentary that we really knew what we were doing and very pleased about all aspects of the sale. Needless to say, so were we!
There were lots of people who helped to make the event a success and a fun couple of days! Most importantly, we all did a bit to help people in far away lands.
Be sure to mark your calendar for the same weekend next year!
Lana MacLean
Coordinator
