Students for International Mission Service (SIMS)

by Pamela Lynch, junior, School of Medicine

Members of the community search for bargains during a garage sale that was sponsored by Students for International Mission Service.

On a Sunday in November before daylight had even broken in the east, people began arriving. After six months of planning, the International Food Fair and community garage sale finally began.

Parking spots were rented to people from the community so that they could sell their unwanted things. They arrived early, filling their spots with as much as would fit.

Others had opted to give their treasures to us on a donation basis-we sold these items with the help of many volunteers. One row of 14 spots was filled with donations that had been filtering in for about two months. The community went above and beyond the call of duty, donating generously of their personal belongings to help raise money.

Inside the gymnasium, there was a wonderful variety of food for sale. Many student organizations brought ethnic food for the occasion.

The Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church sponsored an extremely popular and profitable booth at the food fair.

Everything smelled so good, people could hardly decide what to eat. A Pathfinder group tempted the crowd with cotton candy-in the hope that some of the attendees could find extra room after the main meal.

The event was well attended and provided publicity for the extensive mission work going on around the world.

It was a warm day, and there were many people who could not resist stopping by for a good bargain or to grab a bite to eat. At the end of the day, we collected an entire flat trailer full of leftover clothing. It seemed we had sold so much that it could not be possible to have leftovers.

The leftover clothing was then taken to San Bernardino to start a distribution site for low-income families.

It was wonderful to see so many people from the area come together to sell, buy, eat, talk, and have a great time. Thanks to the community--the event was a great success!

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