Friday, the sixteenth of August Flanagin’s Bulk Mail Service held their annual yard sale; this year to benefit the American Heart Association’s Team Kelli to raise money for the groups upcoming walk in September. Flanagin’s is a locally owned mail company that will efficiently send out magazines, coupons, advertisements, if you can name it and need over two hundred sent Flanagin’s is the place to go! While their partnership with the Heart Association began last year, philanthropy is nothing new to the local mail company. For over seven years Flanagin’s has been sending mail, and kindness to multiple organizations and groups.
“The very first yard sale was over seven years ago, and was for Pines Village so that veterans could go to Washington D.C.,” Donna Flanagin, owner of the shipping business, explained. “We’ve done Boy’s And Girl’s Club, Ronald McDonald House in Indianapolis and the past two years with the Heart Association.”
The previous year which was Flanagin’s first time working with Team Kelli they raised over $775. The yard sale’s ultimate goal is to raise money in honor of a family friend named Kelli who tragically died at the age of 33 due to a rare heart condition called SCAD. The money raised will go to fund and support the American Heart Associations Team Kelli and will go towards their walk this September.
When I had first arrived, I was impressed to see the amount of people there at the sale, curiously perusing the aisles the volunteers had made and carefully organized with an array of items to be sold. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the amount of random donations made by those who had not even made a purchase. And after a while there it became apparent to me that the people at Flanagin’s are well versed in the ways to have a successful fundraiser.
“We also raised over three hundred dollars with a lemonade stand to send to Oklahoma, and it was raining that day,” Flanagin said.
The longer I stayed the more I also saw that this yard sale was also unlike typical ones as well. I began to find that many of the items there were in excellent condition and of practical use and value, and I myself bought a rare psychology book for a friend. From computers, to books, household items, even super eight and thirty-five mm slide projectors and a copy of Disney’s “Dinosaur” (a personal favorite) on video this sale has a little bit of something for everyone and for a cause that is more than worth while.
I hadn’t even known about this before I had discovered it while working for ValpoLife and now I hope to stop by every year. I highly recommend stopping by in the next years for all who are interested.
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