4th Annual Eating Disorders Awareness Week Benefit Yard Sale and Raffle. In A Word…Wonderful!!
The blue skies and delightful temperatures of March 1, 2008 turned out to be a glorious backdrop and vehicle for an incredibly successful 4th Annual Eating Disorders Awareness Week Benefit Yard Sale and Raffle!
The $1,860.00 that was raised will go directly to the National Eating Disorders Association. This non-profit organization helps educate and support those dealing with eating disorders.The monetary amount raised was wonderful, but as always the amount of awaress raised was priceless.
Bargains galore, great raffle opportunities, and invaluable information about eating disorders were found by all of those who came out to support this important cause. And out they did come! There was a steady stream of people from 8 .a.m. until the event was wrapped up at 3 p.m. How encouraging to have people attend from as far away as Mims and Ormond Beach. It was an honor to have eating disorder specialists Karen Samuels, Kathryn Fraser, and Sandra Brooks of COPE (Community Outreach for the Prevention of Eating Disorders) come out to be supportive in many ways. Many heartwarming stories, tears, hugs and hopes were shared by those who understand the insidiousness eating disorders can bring.. There is no way that the unexpected moments of the day (actually, all week long and since) could ever have been ochestrated by those planing this event.
For about an hour, some of our yard salers were privileged to be entertained by musician Clay Jackson of the band “The Transfers”. Clay was gracious to lend his talents to help bring awareness to our communities. Thank you Clay!!
It is said each year, but so heartfelt…. National Eating Disorders Awareness Week Benefit Yard Sale and Raffle COULD NOT be a success without the giving, sharing, and caring spirit of our phenomenol communities. Our businesses and artists that are so willing to donate a raffle gift and our schools and libraries that eagerly raise eating disorder awareness by putting up displays and handing out information are all SAVING LIVES….maybe the life of someone you or they know and love.
The Yard Sale could NEVER be accomplished without the help of my awesome friends Karen, Rose, Sandy, Theresa, Carol, Ray, and Sue who volunteer their time selflessly. A HUGE thank you must go to my husband Bill for putting up with the months of preparation time that this event takes and helping on the day of the sale even though he was sick.
I would also like to extend a special thank you to Edgewater’s Chick-fil-A and the new Edgewater Fitness Center for going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure this year’s NEDAW Yard Sale and Raffle was more successful than ever.
The raffle drawing was held on Monday March 3, 2008. All who helped were there to celebrate the success and pull our winners. For the third year in a row Julia Jackson pulled the first winner while talking to Tonia Brown at the National Eating Disorders Association Headquarters in Seattle, Washington. It always makes it twice as exciting to share this moment with them in Seattle!
There were over 60 raffle winners and I plan to post them all in the near future. It is my hope that you will support these businesses by frequenting their establishments or stop in to say thank you for understanding the importance of eating disorder awareness and giving to this cause.
Lastly, I would like to say one enormous THANK YOU to everyone…right down to the shoppers who helped turn the rough gem held in my hand in October to the precious jewel it became on March 1, 2008. Remember…..you all assuredly received a gift….the gift of realizing you may be saving a life.
If you would like to see more of the events that took place during NEDAW around the country log onto nationaleatingdisorders.org
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