Typically when someone holds a garage sale, it’s so they can make a few extra dollars while clearing things out of the house.
This is just what Ginger Bryant did at the garage sale held at her home on English Hill in Redmond on Aug. 21 and 22. But she didn’t just sell items collected from around her home and the sale brought in more than just a few extra dollars. The garage sale included items from dozens of Bryant’s neighbors, members of her prayer group and others within her community. They brought in about $5,000 — though Bryant said they still have a few sales to calculate and add to the total.
The Friends & Family Garage Sale — as organizers had called it — was a fundraiser for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Bryant said the garage sale was held in memory of Makai C.J. Bryant, her grandson who was a patient of the NICU at Children’s about four years ago. Makai was born three months premature and lived four and a half months before passing way.
Over the years, the group has held annual fundraisers for the NICU. Bryant said last year, they held a fun run to raise money and at the last minute, held a garage sale to help with the efforts. That garage sale brought in about $850 and combined with the funds raised from the run, they were able to raise about $3,300 for the NICU.
Bryant said this year, the garage sale was their main fundraising event.
Prior to this year’s garage sale and last year’s run, Bryant said their family and friends had donated more than $2,000 to the NICU in 2011 — again in honor of Makai.
She said so many of her neighbors and friends stepped up to help, which is why they were so successful.
“I could never have done it without them,” she said, explaining how people came together to sort, organize and price sale items as well as advertise and run things the day of the sale.
Bryant credits Children’s for this enthusiasm as people know the good work they do and that is why people were eager to support their cause.
Bryant said they began collecting items in March, storing them in her garage until the days of the sale.
“We had a huge variety of items,” she said. “I think every department was covered.”
Those departments included clothing, sporting goods, furniture, household items, toys and more.
According to its website, the NICU at Children’s provides “the most comprehensive, state-of-the-art care in our region to critically ill newborns and premature infants. In 2015, U.S. News & World Report ranked Seattle Children’s Neonatology program No. 5 in the country.”
The website also states that Children’s was also the first hospital in the state to be designated a Level IV NICU — the highest designation possible. This means, “equipped to care for the tiniest and most critically ill newborns, Children’s 19-bed Level IV NICU receives patients from nearly all Level III NICUs in Washington and Montana.”
