Bargain finds help fund new Haitian school addition

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Susan Jacob had a steal of a deal during this year’s garage sale.

Visitors who stopped by on Thursday, Friday and Saturday had their pick of clothes, plates or just about anything they could think of; by Friday and Saturday, Jacob encouraged clients to name their own price. In return, Jacob collected more than $680 in donations to build a secondary school at a Haitian orphanage.

“It’s anything and everything,” Jacob said of her sale items. “It makes me happy when people find something that they’re happy about.”

Jacob is raising money for Imagine Missions through her international honorary sorority Alpha Delta Kappa, which will award a $50,000 grant to Imagine Missions this July in New Orleans.

The Imagine Missions orphanage — located in Croix de Bouquet, on the edge of Port-au-Prince — has a growing partnership with Floyd County residents after Susan Ayers began organizing Haitian mission trips in 2011. Homes for Haiti took it’s first trip to Imagine Missions in January 2016 with 27 volunteers, and the team is planning a return trip in January 2018.

Jacob, an Iowa Phi chapter member of Alpha Delta Kappa, submitted an application for the International World Understanding Committee’s 2016 grant for Project T.E.A.C.H. (Training, Educating and Affirming the Children of Haiti). The project was chosen as a finalist by the International Executive Board, and members from 1,300 ADK chapters voted to award the grant to Project T.E.A.C.H. in October.

Grant funds will build six additional brick-and-mortar classrooms to the existing school at Imagine Missions, which will expand high school and trade skill classes to orphans and surrounding area students. Construction on the Imagine Missions school addition is expected to start in November, with a dedication in March 2018.

ADK members are hard at work raising the funds that will be awarded to Imagine Missions. As a fundraiser, Jacob has been making small packages of greeting cards for those who donate $10, and decided to put the profits from this year’s garage sale toward the cause.

On Friday, Jacob decided that any inventory she hadn’t yet priced would be available for whatever visitors would be willing to donate. By Friday afternoon, Jacob’s garage sale had raised $346 in sales and $335 in donations from visitors hopping from home-to-home during the citywide garage sale last week.

“I’ve been really pleased … I anticipated, maybe $500. [Thursday] we had $200 and some. So far, we’ve surpassed that,” she said.

Jacob collected items for the sale from members at her church, friends and Iowa Phi chapter members. Clothes leftover from the weekend sales were donated to Transcend North Iowa’s clothing closet in Mason City; other items were donated to the Treasure Chest consignment store in Charles City.

As of June 2, ADK chapters have raised $34,370.83 for the project. The Charles City Iowa Phi chapter will be hosting another fundraiser at Pizza Ranch on June 22. All the tips chapter members earn by bussing tables for the business will go to the grant.

“We’re getting closer and closer to our goal of raising $50,000, which is what we pledged to give them,” Jacob said.

Anyone who would like to contribute to the grant can donate to ADK online at www.alphadeltakappa.org and click ‘World Understanding’ to receive a charitable tax donation receipt. Donors could also contact Jacob at 641-330-9876.