from follower Kim Carrell-Smith:
Attached is info on the sale this year, from what we have to how it works. I didn’t include our latest find, the sweater shrug (pretty unspectacular, very basic) that had Barney’s tags, and the designer’s own tag still on it. The price: $650!! Amazing. You never know what treasures will be on the tables at the sale…
We also have other high end goods, but really its all about more basic things people need and want: great brand name clothes, loads (really a lot more) furniture, small appliances from lamps to kitchen to billions of fans (well, perhaps a small exaggeration). And really great quality rugs, plastic storage containers and drawers of every description; mountains of towels, sheets, blankets, pillows, etc; so many pots, pans, dishes, glasses, knickknacks and decor items, games, toys…I run out of breath describing it all!
100% of the proceeds go to fund programs and field trips for Southside kids, with some assistance to at least one other Community School in need. Broughal received bleachers this year thanks to the sale proceeds, and three schools were able to go on field trips with this funding!
So, really, great reasons to shop, and volunteer to help!
Kim
Full details at Gadfly’s previous post on the Great Southside Sale 2019!
Buyers needed: Kim says, “We need to sell it all in five and half hours!!”
Workers needed: volunteers, please sign up for shifts here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbzwhVJ_mQdcyrOXZRseeEdMWsMV6_zT6KVpbYhIxexZIelw/viewform
The Great Southside Sale 2019
The Great Southside Sale is an event with multiple, far-reaching effects:
- cleaning up the streets when students move out
- keeping thousands of dollars-worth of reusable goods out of the waste stream
- allowing Lehigh students to “give back” to their adopted community
- providing terrific high end items in a sale that allows low income residents and others to purchase goods with dignity, at affordable prices
And finally, there is the money we raise each year: $20,000+ in 2018, on over $100,000+ of goods (calculated at regular thrift shop prices)—ALL of which goes to fund field trips for Southside schools, three nationally-recognized afterschool homework clubs, and other programs for Southside school children.
What’s being sold at the 2019 sale?
This year we have way more furniture –gorgeous dining tables and chairs, dressers, desks, sofas, side tables and MORE—plus the usual mountains of beautiful clothes (many with tags still on!); household goods (from china to crystal, pots and pans to knick knacks!); over 100 rugs, SO many electronics, from Keurigs to fans to more; and toys, baby things of all kinds; sporting goods; and more! It’s going to be enormous, and we believe it should raise more than the average of $20,000 in five and a half hours, once again this year.
How does the sale work?
- In May, Lehigh University Community Service Office runs the Lehigh Moveout Drive that collects donations from students (and some faculty and staff members)—anything people can’t use, don’t want to take home at the end of the semester, or wish to share with others.
Organizations that benefit from the Lehigh Moveout Program (presale):
- Both New Bethany Ministries and Hispanic Center of the LV Foodbanks received vanloads of food, as well as toiletries and cleaning supplies for their New Bethany shelter residents
- Bethlehem Area School District “Community Schools” received school supplies for their homework clubs and science programs, balls for recess, and more.
Organizations that benefit from the proceeds of The Great Southside Sale itself –over $20,000 last year:
- Donegan Elementary School
- Broughal Middle School
- Fountain Hill Elementary School
- Marvine Elementary School
How do they benefit?
- School Fieldtrips to: Da Vinci Science Center, LV Zoo, Shakespeare Festival, Jacobsburg State Park, Lehigh Basketball Diversity Pride Game, and more
- Three nationally-recognized afterschool Tutoring/Mentoring Homework Clubs for south Bethlehem kids, four days a week from September through May. School students are matched with individual Lehigh University tutor-mentors who work with the children throughout the year.
- Broughal Bowling Program (Once a month, kids go to bowl with Lehigh students — the scoring monitors are shut off, kids calculate their own scores and complete math packets, THEN get a real game with the works, including pizza)
- Purchase of bleachers for Broughal Middle School so fans can watch sporting events on the playing field
- T-Shirts for: school field trips and sports teams
- Leadership Ropes Course for Donegan and Broughal students
- And MORE!
Who helps to make this event possible?
It is all coordinated by Lehigh University’s amazing Community Service Office
With support from
Lehigh University’s
- Auxiliary Services
- Facilities Services
- Office of Community and Regional Affairs
- Residential Services
- Office of Residence Life
- Dean of Students Office
- The Lehigh University Basketball Team
- The Lehigh Wrestling Team
AND Community partners:
- The Bethlehem Parking Authority
- The City of Bethlehem
- John’s Windish Lutheran Church
- The City of Bethlehem Mayor’s Office
- AND MANY MANY individual faculty, staff, student, and local community volunteers!!!!
