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An Inspirational Garage Sale
August 13th update: Our garage sale was a huge success! The exact amount raised will be announced shortly. Thanks to Laura Dextrase and Patrick Latour for their organization and tireless efforts to make this such a great event. Thanks to our amazing volunteers. We have such a great team! And, thanks to everyone who donated such quality items! 🙂 Last, but definitely not least, thanks to all those who attended and supported our event, buying our items and generously donating to our cause. It is so very much appreciated! We raised $2857.76!!!!
🙂 Susan
Whenever we start organizing an event, we never know what kind of response it will get. Coming up with the idea for a garage sale is simple enough, and many rescues choose to use the summer to their advantage by hosting one. We, like many others, decided that this year we would host one for the cats. We started by asking for donations in the form of used items a little over a month before the event itself.
The response was immediate and small at first. A few people contacted us right away and off we went to start picking up their donations. As word spread, we noticed an increase in pick-up requests. So much so, that we had to start a waiting list! This is when Susan (founder and president of PetitsPawz) and I started to realize that our small garage sale was starting to turn into something even bigger. It seemed as though everyone had come up with a few items to contribute, and to our surprise, started dropping off boxes upon boxes, upon BOXES of quality items. Some had so many things to give us that it had to be done in numerous trips. Not only that, but certain people took it upon themselves to collect items from their friends and neighbors as well, all to help contribute to our cause. This, was only the beginning. We had so many donations, that after awhile, we started realizing that there were literally thousands of items to organize and price.
When it was time to ask for volunteers to help out to prepare for the event, once again, many people contacted us to help. What started as a three person job had turned into a ten person job. On top of our usual dedicated volunteers, we met some new faces. We have never had such a strong response for volunteering, and we are still shocked to be getting new requests every day making sure we don’t need extra help. for the actual event, over 40 people offered to help out. So many, that we had no choice but to tell people that we didn’t need any more help! (which NEVER happens!!!).
Today, we are gearing up for this coming weekend to show off the fruits of everyone’s labour. At the same time, when we actually think about all of the hard work that SO many wonderful people have done to make this event a success it brings tears to our eyes. We still cannot believe that what started out as a small idea and modest garage sale, has literally turned into a pint sized flea market and event of the year. The last few weeks have been inspiring, uplifting and has reminded us to NEVER underestimate Montreal and the animal lovers living here. “Thank you” isn’t enough. How can we say thank you and make everyone realize just how much this means to us? We can’t. All we can do now is make a promise to continue our mission of saving cats, as this is what we do best. In return, everyone that has taken part in the coming together of this event should know that it is because of them that we are able to do so.
Laura, PetitsPawz Volunteer
Join us on the 11th and 12th of August (this coming weekend), and you will see just what I am talking about!!!
1125 Moffat, Verdun
Saurday and Sunday 9am-5pm
