Last week I decided to spend my Saturday morning checking out some of the garage sales on The Citizen garage sale map. My husband says I need to have a garage sale of my own before going to any more of them. I pretend to not understand this reasoning.
So here I am at the Ivy Kanis Community Garage Sale at the Columbus Hall in College Heights. It was a huge fundraiser for another local good cause.
I walked in the door and I was greeted by this very cheerful and young volunteer by the name of Jacquie. In fact she greeted everyone in the very same cheerful manner. I overheard Jacquie explain to a friend of hers who came in shortly after I did, about how tired she was due to an extremely busy week at work, busy with her family and then helping for the past three weeks to get ready for this garage sale. She had plenty of reason to be quite the exhausted volunteer. Regardless of being tired she was still nice to all the shoppers.
Of course I found another special treasure at the garage sale and as I was paying for it the two of us started chatting. Jacquie explained that the group had been collecting donations daily for the fundraiser for the past three weeks.
I always love the opportunity to praise a volunteer. Jacquie is far from being a senior. Nevertheless, it is always refreshing to see younger people doing volunteer work.
After chatting with Jacquie I decided to write a short story about her. When I asked for information about her she sang the praises of everyone else. She said, "I have a great team of people to work with. People have been so generous with their donations and the shoppers have been wonderful to deal with. We just cannot thank the Columbus Hall enough for donating the use of this hall. We were just lucky that they didn't have it booked for another event. We have worked all week to set this all up and when the sale is over real estate agent Tab Baker will come by with his big cube truck and take it all away for us. We intend to donate all the leftovers to other worthy causes."
Jacquie is 43 years old and works for Canada Post. She has lived in Prince George since 1978 and she has raised her family here. She has volunteered all her life for one worthy cause or another. In fact, Jacquie had two strokes back to back this past November, yet she continues to give back to her community.
July Birthdays that I know about are: Bonnie Pauley, Scott Pauley, Virginia Flanagan, Lee Davison, Armand LeFebvre, Della Walker, Sandy Banzer, Sheila Carr, Gloria Thorpe, Iva Lovett, Jenny Bachmann, Dennis Ableson, Rosaire Duperron, John Orser, Mildred Green, Doris Aiken, Lavinia Ouellet, Bruce McClure, Gary Kwast, Roy Green, Bernice Carrier, Carole Pitchko, Doris Lawrence, Helen Sarrazin, Henri LeFebvre, Richard LeFebvre, Eugene Fichtner, Pat Sexsmith, Alice Westra, Redford McKenzie, Karen McKenzie, Lorne Carbert, Brenda Doucette, Marguerite Colborne, Pat McKenna, Virgina Archibald, Linda Letawski, Kathleen Boyes, T.A. Mackay, Elmer Braun, Walter Okimaw, Elsie Caron, Lois Olenik, Leo Denis, Marius Pereira, Shirley Dewald, Dorcas Rained, Leonard Duperron, Norma Raycraft, Mildred Fugate, Leone Sadowick, Gail Gromball, Harvey Schroeder, Gervin Halladay, Ed Valenta, Beatrice Horning, Ben Wilson, Carol Hunter, Robert Whitehead, Alan Nunweiler, Emma Strasbourg, Joyce Kennedy, Karin Martwig, Delores Bolduc, Armand Denicola, Eileen Slusarenko, Gub Striker, Randy Sokolowski and Jack Tremblay.
The Hart Pioneer Centre, 6986 Hart Hwy., is having a potluck dinner at 5 p.m. on July 10 and a crib tournament at 1 p.m., followed by a roast beef dinner at 5 p.m. on July 20.
If it is dancing that you want then check out their 8 p.m. dance on July 26. For more information just phone the centre at 250-962-6712.
