duty calls

On a weekend in August in Portland, there is any number of fun things to do. The rain is gone, the heat settles down and the days become our reward for putting up with the rough year-round weather. For example, on this weekend, they're holding the soapbox derby on Mt Tabor near my house. I've been invited by a handful of different people to attend with them but duty calls.

My friend Jen from Country Fair has a five year old son named Sam. Earlier this year, Sam was diagnosed with brain cancer. He's been in the hospital for months now undergoing chemo. While he's in good hands in Doernbecher's Children's Hospital, his mom has been with him the whole time and they will be facing a lot of bills when they get out so my friend Stacie organized a yard sale for this weekend to help raise funds for him.

It began early in North Portland this morning so I had to wake up earlier, load up last minute donations on my bike, and head up there but it was all totally doable and I was glad to do it to help out. Cancer is such a daunting disease and there's nothing I can do about that but I could help in this way. I got there this morning, set some stuff up and helped manage the rush that followed shortly after we opened. A lot of awesome people donated, including the widow of a guy who owned a whole lot of new and nice athletic wear. Two of the first guys to come to the sale were THRILLED and bought a lot of it up before we really had time to research the value. However, they also gave us some tips on what to price some of the other items so it all worked out. In one day, we made around $800 and there's still another day of sale to go!


If you'd like to donate to Sam's fund, here's a link to a site that was set up to help raise money for him. Thank you in advance.

Even if they hadn't needed help at the yard sale, another friend needed help cleaning out her house that she is selling since she was recently widowed. It can be a shitty world sometimes but it's nice to have friends that will pitch in and help out. Plus these hard times remind us to remember and value the good times.

What else?

 A good number of people showed up in the early afternoon to help out at the yard sale so I was able to leave a little bit early. I managed to get home and have enough time to walk Dean up to Mt Tabor quick to catch the very end of the soap box derby. Apparently, Sophia and Jen took him up to the derby last year so I was happy to be able to keep his tradition. I wish I could have seen more of it but there's always next year. I don't regret a bit of today.