As part of their fundraising programme, Family Wellness Club (FWC) held a jumble sale recently at the sports hall of YMCA, Ipoh. The event, which lasted from 9am till 2pm, saw pre-loved and even new items, donated by volunteers, on sale to an eager crowd. The primary objective of the sale was to raise funds to conduct the club’s many altruistic activities and events.
Their previous fundraising was a food fair in 2015. The sale had plenty of attractive goods such as bags, accessories like Swarovski earrings, plants, clothing materials like sarees, books, home decorations, kitchenware and more. Over 200 curious visitors dropped by for a look and most left with something they wanted at a very affordable price.
“The response isn’t as good but I’m glad we got the right people to donate and the right crowd to come over. We had some really good books and paperbacks, a collection of Reader’s Digest and encyclopaedias which were snapped up,” said P. Mangaleswary, President of FWC.
Prices of goods were marked down to half in the final 30 minutes of the event. It prompted some last-minute buying. According to Mangaleswary, the idea of the jumble sale came about to encourage well-wishers not to donate money but to donate their belongings instead.
“The idea of voluntarism is not gaining much traction these days. Nonetheless, we still try to encourage it. We had 25 booths selling different items. There’s a wide range of items for people to choose from. The remaining soft toys and children books were bought by certain NGOs dealing with the Orang Asli community. It’s so thoughtful of them,” she concluded.
Khaleeja
