Garage Sale For A Cause

One friend told me "Iba ang pakiramdam kapag alam mo na makakatulong ka/It's a different feeling when you know you can help". This statement simply sums up what I have experienced last Friday after I said YES to become part of a Garage Sale.

This kind of event isn't something new to me. As a kid growing up in a Catholic school, we've been doing regular charity events or sales in order to raise funds for those who are in need of help. The usual fund raising activity would either be a Bingo game, a sports tournament, a ball/party, food sales or garage sales such as this one. On most occasions, the resources that we use for these events were sponsored by my rich classmates or from companies who have answered our sponsorship letters, so I actually don't remember a time when we have certain difficulties whenever we gather our resources. But with the recent event that I attended to...it was a rather different experience.

Since this is only a religious-community-based event, under the CFC, the initial gathering of resources for the said Garage sale has already posed a struggle. Unfortunately, not everyone appears to have a kind heart to donate their semi-used goods for charitable purposes. But still lucky enough, and yes, through God's way, unexpected miracles do happen. It's only a matter of believing, I guess. So on the day of the said event, when we're about to tally what we have gathered, we're surprised to find 2 boxes and a couple of huge plastic bags filled with clothes and accessories to sell with! Some good-hearted people even donated used appliances to add to our list!

By the end of the day (around 5PM to be exact), even though not all of our stuffs were sold we have at least accumulated around 56KD! Not bad enough though. This money, as little as it may seem, will be sent to the Philippine's CFC ANCOP scholarship fund to help young kids with their school. But what's more interesting is that the left-over things will be shipped off instead to a depressed part in India as aid for those who have been stricken by the current flooding. This has been agreed upon by the leaders of the community since the last time when the Filipino members of the CFC community were in need of help, our Indian brothers and sisters have been generous enough. So this of course seems like a great deal of giving back what they deserve.

I do hope that this act of kindness and sharing will be a common practice not only because this is an event run by a religious community nor by a certain group of people, but by everyone in the hopes that this will be a symbol of unity for all.