The Fair Booth

Reger and Katherine work the fair booth in the evening on Tuesday. The stuffed animals for a dollar donation are once again very popular. There are many repeat customers.

Putting up the Fall Decorations

Retail stores are already displaying the fall decorations, so Connie and Pat decided it was time to haul down the boxes of decorations that we had been saving. They got busy filling one table.

There were many items that could be hung so the girls got busy using the slat board. Costumes were hung and other assorted decorating items were nicely displayed for the customers to see.

One of the end cap displays.

Connie decided to try something new in displaying the beanie babies. She put swing tags with hooks on them so the critters could easily be hung on the slat board.

Getting Ready for the Fair

Last evening after the store closed the many bags of stuffed animals that had been stored in the attic were brought down for the fair.

Friday we gathered to set up the fair booth and to release all the bagged up critters. Can you spot the real critters?

Marcia helps to load a cart with one of 70 bags of animals.

Leapin' lizards, someone is trying to escape!

Audrey and her daughter do a great job loading the trailer with all the animals and other supplies we will need to set up the booth.

Laura pushes the last cart full of critters to be loaded up.

The teddy bear section of the animal display.

Just a few of the many animals people can have for a donation to the center.

Marcia is making sure the critters are placed just right.

This year we have two spots so there is room for more critters and space for the volunteer workers.

Slat Board Makes a Difference

Today we hung up quite a few of the kitchen utensils on the slat board with hooks. It looks better and will be more visible to the customers and hopefully will sell more too!

Drop Box Diving!!

A little bluebird told us today that the drop box needed to be tended too. The clothing bins are over flowing but we still needed to pull out the non-clothing items so they could be processed. What a surprise we were in for as we opened the door.

It never ceases to amaze us how people get some things in to the drop box and how some things actually survive the drop into the box. Today we found 12 microscopes.

Lucy opened the far end of the drop box and started digging from her side. Gayle, Laura and Connie helped to retrieve the various treasures. Of course we found some boxes were upside down so when we lifted them out the contents fell into the pile of bags and to the floor. Lucy set to work retrieving these little pieces. Connie was helping and I think the heat got to us and we started to laugh and we laughed until our sides nearly split. It was so funny to see people stop to drop off items and to find us digging in the box! Anyway the good Book says laughter is good medicine, so we got a good dose for sure today.

Dirty to Clean

Not all the donations that arrive at N2N are beautiful and clean. We'd love to have to scrub and clean every treasure, but alas we do not have the time or help to do so. But occasionally a treasure is seen beneath the dirt and grime of being in someone's storage barn for a long time.

A big box of Christmas dishes arrived this week. This is how they looked when we first peeked in the box. Connie decided they need a bit of soap and water to bring out the shine and so she set to work in the kitchen.

This was the result! A beautiful set of dishes to make someone's Christmas table extra special.