Dollar Dollar Bills Ya’ll

September 19 was a good day at the Eastown Street Fair.

I think we can all agree that it feels good to find a good “steal.”  I think we could also agree that it feels good to save lives.  Why not do both at the same time?

When I was a kid, I loved to see what I could get from the dollar store.  Who am I kidding?  I still love to see what I can get from the dollar store, but these days things might cost a few nickels more than $1 or even, dare I say, $2!  The Measles Initiative Dollar Store was a long shot idea of collecting donated items (e.g. books, shirts, bags, etc.) and selling everything for just $1.  Every item sold would provide one vaccination for one child.

Over the course of the month, we collected everything: huge garbage bags filled with shirts, handmade scarves, Little Mermaid purses, boxes filled with CDs from Josh Groban to Harry Connick Jr.’s Christmas album, Chinese paper kites, and everything in between.  I spent much of the Friday night before laying out all of the items on my living room floor and sorting & boxing.  Everyone’s generous donations filled my entire living room!

We set up our booth at the Eastown Street Fair on Wealthy Street near Atlas at 7:30am.  Matt rigged up our newly created Measles Initiative banner (thanks to the wonderful artists at Avenue for the Arts!) and hung it from the top of our booth.

It was a beautiful day and lots of fun people were roaming the street checking out all of the artists’ booths beside our yard sale of a booth.  However, it didn’t take long before people were drawn into the Dollar Store… following the scent of a good deal, I guess.

Throughout the day, many people just gave donations without taking any items as we were shouting out “Everything is $1! $1 saves 1 life!”

Check out some pictures from the event!

Thrifty people. Saving lives.

Raking in the vaccinations

Americorps at the Dollar Store! (Lindsay, Jeena, Sarah, Ben)

Busiest booth at the fair!

Just one dollar! -Ernad

The booth was open from 9am to around 7pm.  By the end of the day, the entire team had had a lot of practice shouting out into the crowds of people to come into our booth, so Ernie started yelling out “Two items for $1 or $5 for whatever you can carry!”  Everything that wasn’t sold was going to be brought to Goodwill or Salvation Army.  We packed up the booth, but Kirsten held down the fort and sold a lot of the leftovers.

The remaining items, still selling like hotcakes

The Grand Rapids community, in a single day, saved over 870 lives!

A job well done. We salute you, Grand Rapids.

A total of $982 was raised from this event and after all costs, 871 vaccinations were provided! Thank you to everyone who donated, who set up, who yelled in the streets, who tolerated our yelling, who bought items, who cleaned up, and who care about making a difference.

The end of September brought us up to nearly 30% of our goal!  Great start Grand Rapids!