According to legend, a white elephant is something that you can't get rid of, that will burden you to ruin.
The Morinville and District HATS group has offered up a solution with its second annual White ('Green') Elephant Garage Sale and Silent Auction. The group is one of the many affiliates with Grandmothers to Grandmothers who support the Stephen Lewis Foundation as it works to help African grandmothers raising their grandchildren because of the AIDS epidemic.
Group member Delsie Thachuk explained that it only has a marginal amount to do with Morinville banning ownership of exotic pets, like elephants, in early 2011.
"Tongue in cheek, we had our first white elephant sale," she began, quickly changing the tone to talk about the seriousness of the cause in Africa. "Many of the grandmothers have taken up and they're raising their grandchildren. Some of them are raising eight or 12 grandchildren. They're trying desperately to hold the family together."
Some of the funds raised will go to help pay for school fees including uniform costs.
"Most of it goes to help the grandmothers in the villages to become self-sufficient, so that they could start a business, learn to garden, plant food that can sustain them through the winters ... we don't want to raise funds forever. What we do want to do is to make sure that the grandmothers there are given a helping hand so that the grandchildren will learn from the grandmothers how to provide for themselves in the future."
The garage sale and silent auction takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 17 at the Morinville United Church, 9610 Morinville Drive. There will be hot dogs, drinks and green cupcakes courtesy of the kitchen leprechauns.
For more information about the event, call Thachuk at 780-973-3878. To learn more about the foundation, visit www.stephenlewisfoundation.org.
Church needs hungry guests to raise $6,000
The congregation at Braeside Presbyterian Church might not be as large as others but many of its members are getting older. That means it's not as easy to get up and down the stairs as it used to be. A recently installed lift is helping to fix all of those mobility issues.
Paying for the lift is another issue. Church member Gareth Jones is helping to organize a fundraising event on the weekend to deal with the debt.
"We've been able to achieve inclusion for everybody," he stated. "It's an aging congregation and we've got a lot of people who find the stairs very difficult."
The lift was installed last year but $6,000 still remains on the loan. Jones hopes that 120 people take in Saturday's event to reduce or remove the rest of that debt entirely.
The lunch and silent auction takes place on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Braeside Presbyterian Church is located at 6 Bernard Drive. Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased by calling Gareth Jones at 780-975-9893.
