Garage Sale Success

The garage sale was a HUGE success raising over $10,000 for homes in TJ! Thank you to all who donated and/or shopped! Luke and I had fun sorting on Friday night and selling on Saturday!

See post below from the garage sale leaders:

Miraculous!!!  We took the communities' discards and made over $10,000 to help build homes, buy program supplies for children and mothers, create friendships and learn about living in poverty in Tijuana.  Like the loaves and fishes story, we start sharing what we have and end up with far more than we started.  Thank you especially to Janina, Joanna, and Francesca for their work and to the many from the many churches represented in the Tijuana ministry, the parishioners of St Julies and all who donated, worked to set up and man the sale and all those who came to find treasures.  We appreciate and needed each of you.  God Bless

I love the fact that all those discards are given new life and reused and repurposed!  Many bags on Sunday were filled to send to an orphanage in the Philippines.  Some items were saved to go to Tijuana with us.  Children’s eyes lit up with new toys.  Some items were bought to pass on to an immigrant family with very little.  Casa de Clara came and picked out some items for a new apartment for a resident.  So many people were delighted with their new found treasures. 

A question often asked was “What do you do with the leftovers?”  Cindy took some to do a fundraiser for the cancer walk.  Annette from a church on Bernal brought a crew to take some to raise funds for orphanages in India.  (They helped with the packing up as well!!!!)  Some were donated to the Library.  Those discards are still going to do good.  Miracles are still in the making.

HUGE garage sale at St. Julie's - May 16-17 Donate and/or Shop!

Do you love bargains? Or have stuff you want to get rid of?!!
One of our biggest team fundraisers is our annual St. Julie's Garage Sale, May 16-17.

FYI, each volunteer traveler pays a travel fee to go on the trip -- and then we are asked to fund-raise another $600+/person. All of the money raised goes directly to the mission of building the 5 homes this year and serving the children, teens and mother's in our day program this summer while we are in TJ. There is no administration or overhead -- so every dollar you donate goes directly to the people and homes we are building in TJ!

You can help by donating stuff to sell -- or coming to shop!  Thank you for your support!!!
Here is more info:

Our annual Garage Sale will be at St Julie’s May 16-17 from 7am-3pm each day, at the St Julie's Sullivan Center (366 St Julie Drive, San Jose, CA, 95119, at the very south end of Cottle Rd).  You can drop off donations as follows:

• Sat & Sun 5/9-5/10 after Mass (so the services end and someone can accept your donations:  Sat. 6pm, Sunday 8:30, 10:30, 12:30 and 2pm

• Mon-Fri 5/11-5/15, 12-6pm: @ the trailer by St Julie’s Sullivan Center

• Call Monica 408-307-4871 for special drop off times, if required

Please donate only new/good condition/gently used items.  We especially need used suitcases.  Please attach suggested sale price to large items, if possible.  Call for more info regarding donating large furniture. Email Garage Sale Coordinator atjanina.umali@cbnorcal.com  or text/call 408.418.6254 to help or ask questions.

You may fill out tax deductible forms with list of donated items at the time of drop off at the trailer. 

Also check our in-kind Donation wish-list of needed supplies and materials. 

We're going to Tijuana!

In January, Luke and I decided to apply to go on a mission trip to Tijuana this summer... we found out in March that we were selected to go! While we are there, our group of 80 will build 5 houses for families and run day-camp programs for children, teens and mothers. Our church, St. Julie's, has been going for the past 11 years, and the program has grown tremendously. I've helped fund raise, etc. in the past, but this year, my 15-year-old son and I decided we would apply to go together, with the thought we'd work with the children's program. He is an avid soccer player and knows some Spanish, so he thought that would be a good fit... Originally I thought I would help with the kids too, but today I got recruited to co-lead the teens program!!!! Eeek!  I'm excited, but a little nervous. As my day-job is teaching English to high school teens, I know I should do okay... but this will be in Spanish and my language skills are a little rusty... and they do a lot of crafts with the teens and my crafts expertise is also a bit rusty! Yes, I am artistic when it comes to photography and photo albums, and scrapbooks, but hands-on crafts will be a stretch! I will be learning a lot! Hello Pinterest and You tube!

Thankfully the gals leading the children's program have been gathering supplies and donations all year for the teen program too... and they already have some of the crafts planned... so, it's not like we're starting from scratch! But, apparently we still need some supplies... Specifically, I'm looking for donations of used greeting cards (the teens will use the front of the cards for crafts projects), duct tape, knee high socks (especially the soft long ones that girls like - another crafts project, I'm told) and travel-sized toiletries...  I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed with the end of school and grading papers with my teaching HS English job, so this is freaking me out a bit...I know it will all come together... Just breathe, right?!!!

Okay, gotta go grade some papers! More later!

PS - want to learn more? Check out our trip website!