Aussie couple raise $30,000 through garage sales for a selfless cause
The grandparents have gathered their community three times a year with the goal of helping those living 9,000km away.
A selfless couple have raised more than $30,000 by hosting garage sales out off their country home in Victoria — but they haven’t kept a cent.
Retirees Ron and Maureen Gardner have rallied their community southwest of Melbourne together three times a year for almost a decade, with locals flocking to the weatherboard home to snap up a bargain for a good cause.
“Maureen’s got it [garage sales] down to a fin art now…we just follow the directions,” Ron, 85, told A Current Affair.
The proceeds over eight years — a whopping $30,000 — has gone towards helping change the lives of three young girls who they sponsor in a small village in Bangladesh, as well as their families and community. The couple have visited them six times, with Maureen describing the girls as their “extended family” who bring them “great joy and love”.
"With us, we’ve been so many times and you see the improvements each time...we put solar on their house, we haven't got solar, but we supplied them with solar, because there was no power around at the time," she said, adding they they have helped pay for school supplies, clean drinking water, cows and anything that can help families generate an income.
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Garage sale funds pay for new school
During one of their many trips, the retirees noticed the local school, which they described as a “tin shed with a dirt floor and no furniture”, was in desperate need of improvement. “Well we had to do something…we looked at each other and said we want to improve the school or make a new one,” Ron told A Current Affair.
The couple spent $3,000 to build a new school and toilet for the entire community to use. Tragically, as they are getting older, Ron and Maureen recently held their last garage sale, but have issued a plea to other Aussies: “If we can do it, anyone can.”
It is $48 a month to sponsor a child through World Vision.
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