Fund Raiser for Let It ECHO

This is it, pancit!

For months, I have been planning to dispose of unused items at home. But every time I plan to create listings in ebay, I come up with a lot of other higher priority tasks. The boxes filled with books looked to sad. They're practically begging me to let them go.

And then, I saw my friend's post about their fund raising activity. Eureka! I volunteered to hold an online garage sale. The setup is perfect. I get to free up some space. My books (and other items), find new homes. And an organization gets additional funds-hopefully!

To maximize exposure, I asked my BFF (and business partner) if I could post the items in our Facebook page. She said yes, so we're hoping our clients are book lovers too!

 For the benefit of those who just chanced upon this post, these are the items for sale. If you wish to purchase, kindly email me at themadolins@gmail.com. Please don't forget to specify the subject as "Let It ECHO".

Our preferred courier is Xend. To know more about their shipping rates, kindly go to: http://www.xend.com.ph/DomesticRates.aspx.

We're aiming to raise at least Php2,500. To help us keep track of the progress, I've added a fundraising thermometer. It looks so cool!

Keeping our fingers crossed! -_-

Let it ECHO's Garage Sale

In 2011, I was around 5 months pregnant when a routine ultrasound revealed that there's a possible cyst in my unborn child's left kidney. That got me worried, but I forced myself not to dwell on it too much. After all, stressing myself out might cause further problems.

image from http://emedicine.medscape.com

A few weeks after my son's birth, we learned that my son has solitary kidney. His left kidney was missing in action. I got overwhelmed by emotions. Fear. Guilt. Anger. You name it. But the worst emotion was really guilt-I spent hours thinking what I might have done during my pregnancy. For months, I became too paranoid. I would stay awake just to check on my son's breathing. In short, I became paranoid.

And then last year, I saw a friend's post on Facebook. Her son, who is just months younger than Lucho, was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease. Tetralogy of Fallot, to be specific. And they needed to raise 1 million pesos within three months so that Maven can have the much needed surgery. To set things in motion, they created a Facebook page called Maven's Heart Fund.

Rockwell's Hoppy Hunt 2013

When I was little, we would spend a quiet Easter Sunday at home. Nothing fancy, just special home cooked meals prepared by my mother. This year, I wanted to shake things up a bit and decided to try something new. So I did a bit of research and came across this event:

image grabbed from http://www.powerplantmall.com/event_article.php?id=44

At 18 months, my son is definitely too young for Easter egg hunts, but since I haven't experienced this myself,  I decreed our family should go. I even convinced my best friend to join us.

And so we did.

When I arrived at the venue, I got shocked to see a lot of people. I thought the tickets were supposed to be limited? There weren't a lot of chairs, so most people would just sit on the floor.

For the main event, we waited in line for about 15 minutes before we were ushered into the activity area. There were three "pens", and each can accommodate 10 kids (with their parents). I imagined it would be a larger area. I was also disappointed to learn that the whole "egg hunt" will be done in a small space and within 45 seconds! And I only got 3 eggs :(

I'm not an events planner, but there's a lot of things to improve here:

• Gather relevant information before the event (pre-registration)
• Well-defined activity area.
• Chairs please. We can't stand for 3 hours, not with a toddler in tow.
• They should clearly define the target age group in their ads. 

Maybe we were expecting too much. But I didn't think it was worth the price I paid (950 for a kid and 3 adults). We all agreed not to join this event again.