OK – this will be my last mention of the Goodlife Fitness Marathon.  I just want to congratulate all of you who got involved – those who broke personal records, those who finished feeling on top of the world and those who finished in a world of hurt or tried and simply couldn’t finish.

I also want to thank all you who passed by the Used angels in our halos at Fisherman’s wharf and shared your joy, pride and enthusiasm with us.  It started as a stinky day for me, disappointed that I wasn’t able to run, but in no time I was caught up in your adrenaline and energy and it ended as a fantastic day.  We had so much fun cheering you all on – there were hugs, waves,  victory dances, kisses and even a couple of marriage proposals sent our way.  One older man pointed at his head (indicating my halo) and said “I’m not ready to go yet, but maybe you should  meet me at the finish”.  He made my day.  Check out this short video clip of us.

So I have been thinking about what to write about from now on and I have a new idea for the next few weeks.  For those of you who have been following my posts, you know I am putting my spare time to purging and organizing my house.  Well I’m going to take it a step further and put the money made from the sale of my old things to a good use and donate the proceeds to charity.  Leveraging the buying and selling of goods on-line to also support community and charity is an idea we have been kicking around at the Used office for sometime so here’s my plan to kick it off:

• Collect up all the stuff I don’t want anymore – that goes for the whole family – kids included
• Post everything on UsedVictoria for what I think is a fair and reasonable asking price.  Everyone who buys something from me and pays the asking price will get one of our highly sought after reusable shopping bags!
• Give all money made from these sales to support Kidsport.  This is a fantastic charity that subsidizes activities for kids who many not otherwise be able to play.  I got the opportunity to volunteer with the Victoria chapter at the kids’ run last weekend and I’m hooked.  Check out their website at http://www.kidsportvictoria.ca/index.shtml

I tried to sell items once before and donate proceeds to charity, but I wasn’t successful.  I posted my Grandmother’s wardrobe (as in clothes) on Used and I didn’t sell any.  I think this was because my ad read something like this

“My Grandmother’s entire wardrobe for sale – beautiful classic pieces in silks and wools.  All brand name and in excellent condition – some barely worn.  Would suit older petite lady.  All proceeds going to BC Cancer Society”

I think that people connected the dots that these clothes belonged to my now deceased grandmother and maybe were a little creeped out to wear a dead lady’s clothes.  Fair enough – no clothes of dead people this time…just household items that we don’t use anymore.

I’ll let you know if this experiment works and maybe we can start a trend.  I figure this is not only a good way to clear out my garage and cellar, but I also get to give money to a great cause and I’ll get to hand Canada Revenue a little thing called a tax receipt, which always gives me great pleasure.

So, I’ll be posting all my stuff at http://kidsportcharity.usedvictoria.com/ so keep checking back as I add more treasures to my list.  I’ll let you know how it goes.