Sometimes I am So Stupid

So I think you all know that I work with the Young Women in my ward. This ward is different from my previous ward (or maybe the rules have changed? I don't know) in that we're allowed to do fundraising.  While I appreciate that this can be really helpful for people, I don't know the first thing about stuff like that.

Last year, I was supposed to plan a fundraiser for the cub scouts, and I suggested a yard sale.  This seemed like the easiest thing to do, since my neighborhood organizes a yard sale every 6 months.  I figured that meant the advertising and posters and stuff were taken care of, and that was half the work, right?  But then I got released from cub scouts and put into Young Women.  I was still trying to be supportive, until we discovered that the yard sale was scheduled for the same day as the father-son campout.  And the new cub scout committee chair suggested that the young women could run the yard sale FOR the scouts!  I did everything but laugh in his face to keep that from happening.  In the end, the scouts ran it themselves on a day they were around.  Which happened to be a day that we were out of town.  So I didn't really do anything, and they didn't make much money, but they tried.  And that was the end of that.

Until this year, when the Young Women needed to raise money for their camp.  And I suggested the same thing, since I never actually did it.

And it turns out that yard sales are a LOT more work than just making signs and advertising.  We collected stuff from the ward for weeks, and the ward was wonderful about donating lots of stuff.  But that also meant that we had to store all that stuff.  And then we had to sort all that stuff.  And it was SO. MUCH. WORK.

We'd also decided to have a bake sale, so in addition to making my living room look like it belonged on Hoarders (and completely taking over my garage), I was also busy making cookies and brownies (and maybe doing a lot of sampling along the way).  And, we were going to have to get up so early to get set up, that everyone decided to just spend the night at my house, so I was also cleaning the whole house (because my downstairs bathroom is where bugs go to die, so knowing people would want to use that shower meant I had to be downstairs scrubbing) and trying to plan dinner and breakfast for everyone.  I'd set aside all of Friday for sorting yard sale items, but the other leaders had other plans and never really managed to be available until afternoon when all my kids were home and I had my hands full with them.  And then Craig's school play was happening that same night and we'd planned to bring Bentley and Kendra (they did Mary Poppins and it was wonderful!).  So I left with leaders sorting through things and hoped that some of the girls would actually show up.

Mary Poppins was a super long play that didn't begin until 8pm, so we got home around 11:30.  And my driveway had been transformed-- leaders, girls, and a few extra people from the ward who took pity on us were all busy placing things on the 12 tables that had been set up.  And my garage was STILL full of clothing!  They worked until midnight, went to bed, and then we all got up at 4am to get some breakfast and get back to work.  People began showing up around 6:30.  And we were done selling stuff around noon.  And then we needed to haul everything that was still left to Goodwill and the dump, and bring the tables back to the church.  We finally finished everything around 4:30, giving me just enough time to shower and tidy up the house before Kendra's very belated birthday party.  Because, yup!-- I scheduled those for the same day!

This picture was taken several hours in, so a lot had been sold.  And you can't even see the racks of clothing hanging in the garage.

I manned the cash.  And the bake sale.  And no, I didn't look that grumpy the entire time!

Saige takes a few minutes to sit in the shade and read to Camille

Oh, and did I mention that it was 90+ degrees that day?

Because it was.

I guess I should be glad it didn't rain and postpone everything (and keep the junk living at my house).  But still!  90+ degrees!!!!!!


Anyway, the good news is that it was a raging success.  The girls made more than enough to cover all their camp expenses, and even had a little left over for high adventure.  So I'm glad for that.  But whew, that was a lot of work.



This last Tuesday, two of the girls were asking if we could do another fundraiser.  They would like to have a car wash now.  I shouldn't (but I will anyway) point out that these girls spent the least amount of time at the yard sale-- one could only come for a few hours because she was also busy decorating for prom, the other was sick and didn't come at all.  Not their fault, but still.  I later pulled the Young Women's leader aside and told her that I was done with fundraisers for the year.  Those girls are more than welcome to hold a car wash if they so desire, but I will not be there.

I guess I learned something from all this.