Ten Thousand Villages Sale - A Huge Success

The St. Mark’s Mission and Outreach Committee, again, hosted the Ten Thousand Villages Sale on Saturday, October 28, 2006. The total sales for the day was $11,223.00 before taxes. This was an increase over the previous year which had been $9600 in sales. Our volunteer sale coordinators, visiting from Saskatchewan, told us that the proceeds from $3500 in sales would feed and provide for a family of four for one year. We were able to assist in the care of three plus families for the next year. That feels good to me!

Hosting this sale means a lot of details to put it altogether, but the old adage “Many hands makes light work” proved to be very true in this endeavour. Ruth was there was start to finish, quietly attending to many of those details. From the publicity given by local papers and 101.5 The Hawk, the people who put up posters, set up tables, unloaded the truck, unpacked boxes, Melita who made a yummy stew for lunch, Barb’s delicious homemade Parker- house rolls, June and Bonnie for their awesome desserts, to those who helped pack up and load the truck and finally swept the floor, we had lots of helpers. We were even more efficient for our customers this year as we had two computerized checkouts and Barb Lelacheur who made the cash, credit card and debit transactions go very smoothly! We had wrappers and floaters and LOTS of happy shoppers. The Beavers were in the Lobby providing a healthy snack as they had their Apple Day. Special thanks to Jean Wilson, who hosted the family from Ten Thousand Villages for two nights.

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