It’s About Values
Julie Leung has a lot to say about the Bainbridge Island Rotary Auction.
I’ve had mixed emotions about this Rotary Auction. At first, it disgusted me. It seemed to be to be a festival of greed. I couldn’t believe how people pursued potential possessions with passion, going to the Preview the night before, getting up early and getting in line, setting a strategy, running and racing when 8 am arrived and the auction opened. It seemed like a celebration of stuff. Another way to acquire more belongings. Despite the reality of my existence, I’ve dreamed of minimal living - owning only enough to fit inside a car or perhaps a backpack (!) - so the Rotary Auction repulsed me.
But we have benefitted as a family from the deals we’ve bought there. One year we got an Exersaucer for $5. We’ve bought a bag of clothes for $10. Last year I stopped by the children’s section and bought a doll stroller, a little table and chair set, and a desk, for a combined total of $7 or so.
I must admit that I was a little shocked to see so many of those nordic, cross-country ski exercise machines at the auction this year. Given the number of overweight people around here, I first thought that they should never have been donated and as I left the auction and saw most them still unsold, I thought, why aren’t they all gone.
I think of the Rotary Auction as a huge recycling event where the Rotary Club takes a commission for setting up and managing the trading post and gives all the money to charity. It’s all voluntary and donors, buyers, volunteers, charities, and the environment all benefit.
I think it keeps a lot of stuff from going ot the dump, but I’m also aware that anything that isn’t gone by the end of the day, has to be dumped. The prices drop as the day goes on, however, and after a certain point everything is free to anybody who will take it away.
It’s a standing joke that much of what people buy one year, they donate back the next. But so what? Everybody still wins.
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