Saturday 9th November 2019
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Report written by Elizabeth
Before I start on the proper report of how we cleared away after a jumble sale, huge shout-out to Becky for reaching 50 good deeds today! That's amazing, especially in less than a year at GoodGym! ๐๐
Hackney''s St Joseph's Hospice regularly holds an enormous jumble sale to raise money for its work providing free support for people affected by serious illnesses. Bargain hunters queue for hours before opening time, and the hospice can make ยฃ10,000 from the three storey jumble. Despite the rush on goods, not everything gets sold on the day and it needs clearing away for next time.
And so, just as the fair was ending, an unknowable number of GoodGymmers arrived to help out (Writer's note: I mean, I counted seven, but that doesn't always mean anything).
After informing the group that I would be guest starring as leader for today's community mission (I am the frantic legs to Eva's serene swan), we said hello to our contact, Emma, and got started.
At first, we split up into two teams. Team Trollied worked on moving some trollies full of either rubbish or sale items to a bin and an outer storage respectively (definitely NOT confusing the two!) Team On-the-rails worked on moving clothing rails to the basement. This second job didn't take very long at all, and so it only took a hot minute for Team On-the-rails to become Team Trollied. This suited us all fine ๐๐ป
There was a slight kerfuffle at one point, when a handful of us may have gotten temporarily locked outside the building (sorry, Eva - I know you recommended asking for a key card ๐ ). We solved this afterwards by simply having one runner (me!) permanently on door (& photograph) duty. Two birds. One stone. Boom. (Incidentally, I told a staff member that my job at the door was to make sure that "No one gets left behind", to which she responded "I think you've found your mรฉtier". I'm unsure whether she meant living by GoodGym mottos or holding doors open ๐คท๐ผโโ๏ธ).
Within an hour, we were done. We finished up by taking a few more bits/trollies down to the basement and getting the traditional "grab-a-random-item-for-the-photo" photo before trundling off.
Hope to see you guys at another one of these soon! ๐
Mon 11th Nov 2019 at 11:37am
Lovely report...makes me think of my grandparents who always helped with the St Joseph's Hospice jumble sale โฅ๏ธโฅ๏ธ
Mon 11th Nov 2019 at 11:57am
Thanks Jo! I love that your grandparents also helped out: it feels like the world is smaller and more connected than ever ๐
Hackney
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