MARYSVILLE The local John L. Scott office is holding its second annual charity auction early next month and they need donations to sell and people to buy said donations.
This year they have a huge space to store donations before the Oct. 6 event, but donations so far are few and disappointing. Last year the community reached out and turned out in force, and the Marysville office had a huge success, raising $10,000 for a Lakewood girl injured in a traffic accident.
Having a local beneficiary generated a huge response from the community, because people could sympathize with Meggi Ward and her family. But this year the realtors have picked a more difficult problem to tackle and thats caused some difficulties attracting the attention of the community.
The Marysville John L. Scott office is raising money for the Snohomish County Foster Children program through Compass Health. These children face a variety of challenges and many have mental health issues. That means no poster child to foster sympathy or to show how these children need help. They need their privacy and there are laws about exploiting them and revealing their medical history or condition is illegal, and just not nice.
But the need is still there and so the property pushers are scrambling for the communitys attention and are appealing to their generosity. It can be a win-win situation, as they will take used items, as long as they have some value and are likely to sell.
The first round of donations have been disappointing, to say the least. As a dozen office members sorted through the cache stored at Clock Tower Self Storage earlier this week, they were chagrined to find things like a box full of hotel-sized soap bars, odd lamps and other junk. There was some nice furniture, sports gear and other donations, but by and large, nothing that would help them achieve their goal of meeting last years handle.
So they are going back to the well one more time. Again, no computer monitors or TVs; those are considered toxic waste and you have to pay to dispose of those. Its an ugly secret in the fundraising business that many folks will dump their crud at a donation site. They are hoping that wont happen here.
Dave Miller reminds readers of the new and gently used qualifiers listed on their advertisements and flyers. He stressed the word gently as a reminder.
Broker Lori Lawrence said the goal this year is to augment the corporate giving with another local effort. Compass Health works with foster children who are missing so much, and her office wants to make the difference during the holidays.
When youre in a foster home you dont get Christmas, Lawrence said. Were trying to make their holiday special.
Last year at this time the storage unit was bursting with donations; this year it echoed with groans of disappointed realtors. They are making another effort to hit it again and are hoping the community comes through. Realtor Laura Laird reminds local businesses that they can donate gift baskets for the raffle and silent auction prizes, and some of the office staff are willing to pick up donations, depending on their size, location and the logistics required.
To make a donation or for more information, call the Marysville John L. Scott office at 360-653-1300, or call Dave Miller at 425-530-0017.
The auction will be held Saturday, Oct. 6, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Marysville office, 1241 State Avenue. Raffle tickets can be bought from any agent for $2.