Photo courtesy danoxster on Flickr
Post by Sabrina Bowman, who – disclaimer alert! -is also the co-chair of the GGGGS, along with being an Apt613 contributor.
Do garage sales remind you of velour pants and ugly dishware? If so, you’ve never experienced the Great Glebe GREEN Garage Sale, happening this Saturday from 8am-4pm at 99 Glebe Avenue. The sale is part of the larger Great Glebe Garage Sale, but it’s also a fundraiser for Ecology Ottawa.
The GGGGS is more akin to a once-a-year spectacle than a simple clearing house of cheap, unwanted goods. There’s a bake sale with coffee (admit it, we all need a little help waking up at 8am on a Saturday morning!), a vegetarian barbecue, a henna artist, a massage therapist, and facepainting. There will be some incredible local musicians, including The Pelts and Timekode DJ Eric Roberts, so you can get your groove-on and shop-on at the same time. Oh yes, the stuff: there will be donations from more than 60 people, which means that all those things that could have gone to the landfill now have a new life. Plus, the proceeds of the event will benefit Ecology Ottawa – an organization working to make Ottawa the green capital of Canada – and even better, 10 per cent of the money raised will go to the Ottawa Food Bank. Clearly, this ain’t your grandma’s sale.
Still not convinced that this is going to be one of the most unique and enjoyable sales in the Glebe? Well, it’s also one of the few places where there will be a portapottie. Ahh, relief.
But besides attending the sale, shoving your face full of barbecued veggies and homebaked treats, and purchasing fabulous clothes, home décor pieces, and old-but-useful sports equipment, you can support the GGGGS in other ways:
Donate your stuff!
Got old pans you don’t want anymore? Trying to clean out your closet before moving? Have a spare lifesized figurine of Vladimir Putin? Donate it! I mean really – do you still need that pink tracksuit?
Bonus: You get to make more room in your house to buy stuff at the sale (which you’ll hopefully end up donating next year!). Interested? Contact Josh Snider at j-snider@rogers.com. We can even pick your stuff up if you can’t deliver it yourself.
Volunteer!
Coordinating the sale, the bbq, the musicians, the facepainters, and everything else takes more than a few people. If you have time to spare on the weekend, we’ve got a number of positions that need to be filled – and you can volunteer for as much or as little time as you want! And if you have a car and can help pick up donations before the sale, even better. Contact Hilary Hove at hilarykhove@hotmail.com.
Spread the word!
Invite your friends via Facebook or through good old-fashioned email. All the details about the sale are available online.
