[btn]By Nicole Hellwig[/btn]
The Teens and Tweens (TnT) group of Valley Home Educators will host its sixth-annual Charity Yard Sale on Saturday, March 16 in the carport of a North Central home. This year the TnTers will donate to the Arizona Animal Welfare League, the oldest and largest no-kill shelter in Arizona.
Valley Home Educators is an inclusive group supporting homeschooling families with infants to teens in Phoenix. TnT is a group of 40-50 homeschooled youths, starting at age 9, who also are learning to socialize and make new friends.
The TnTers first yard sale was held in November 2007, an idea thought up by now 17-year-old Amanda Nolan.
“For my 10th birthday we had some friends that gave me a letter that said they were donating 20 chickens to Heifer International, and I thought that was such a cool idea,” she recalls. “And in that fall we joined the Valley Home Educators (VHE) group because I wanted to make friends and decided to do a yard sale to benefit Heifer International so we could get everyone involved and meet people.”
So far the TnTers have donated $4,875 to various charities including Bear Hugs, Cause for Paws, Feed My Starving Children, and Amani Children’s Home. Each year the kids nominate a charity of their choice and they all vote to select which charity will receive the donation. Any items that do not sell are taken to donation centers around the Valley.
All the kids in the group put the yard sale together. They have certain committees to delegate tasks and everyone is involved in the process. Each committee consists of an older member who has participated in a previous year and a younger student who can learn what to do and be able to pass it down the next year.
Bailey Hill, 13, and Jackie Rippon, 13, are on the Advertising committee and are responsible for making fliers, advertising on the Internet and in various newspapers. Katie Gould, 13, along with Paige Hill, 16, are in charge of T-shirt design and slogans, while the rest of the kids help with making posters and decorating T-shirts.
“Now since we’re running it, we have different jobs,” Hill explains. “Everyone is nominated. We have two people in charge of collecting votes and announcing the charity. We have advertising people getting ads out, and T-shirt people coming up with logos, sayings and patterns, shift directors, people making signs, and people getting pizza donated for after the sale is over.”
The yard sale will be held from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Follow signs from 15th and Northern avenues to reach the sale. Donations are gladly accepted and appreciated. For more information, call Deborah Nolan at 602-371-8816 or e-mail DAN7NOLAN@aol.com.
