Begging Sure Gets Good Results

Late last week, feeling like we’d lost momentum, I basically decided to beg anyone and everyone to donate items to the MV Big Flea. If I’d know that that was all it would take for a big turnout, it would have started doing it weeks ago. Where to begin? Ed Getterman donated 15″ and 26″ [...]

$500 Item Revealed: Rare Audubon Print!

A few weeks ago I coyly announced that we received an item worth more than $500. I’m now happy to report that the item, a rare framed Audubon print from the mid-1800s, sold this weekend on Ebay for $565. This brings our total sales for the MV Big Flea, which will be held on April [...]

Challenge Met! Nearly $5,000 Raised So Far!

I am very happy to report that we successfully met Jack Taylor’s challenge and raised $500 in private contributions for the Mount Vernon Community School.   Jack has agreed to meet these donations dollar-for-dollar, thereby doubling the amount of money raised to $1,000! These additional contributions bring to nearly $5,000 the amount of revenue we’ve raised [...]

Location, Location, Location – Our New Storage Unit

Thanks to the generosity of Salena Zellers Schmidtke, we have a new storage unit. It will be open on Saturdays from 9:30am-12:30pm. The unit (a.k.a. her garage)is located at 1122 Madison Street in Alexandria (1 block east of the Braddock Road Metro station). IMPORTANT: The storage unit is located in the courtyard of the building. [...]

Jack Taylor’s $500 Challenge

Alexandria resident Jack Taylor has thrown down a challenge. If the MV Big Flea can raise $500 in cash contributions in the next seven days, he will match those donations dollar for dollar. If successful, that means we’ll raise an extra $1,000! So where does the money go? To the nonprofit Mount Vernon Community School [...]

More Goodies & Selena Comes to the Rescue

I’m completely jammed with work, so this is going to be a very short post.  We once again received a number of fantastic items on Saturday.  Most generous was a donation of a matching coffee and side table, IKEA Poang chair in like-new condition, entertainment center and wrought iron lamps by Bari and Kyle Talente [...]

An Incredible Furniture Donation!

The Mount Vernon Community School PTA owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to Susan Helpler of Alexandria.  Last night she donated to the MV Big Flea an oak china cabinet cupboard that belonged to her grandmother in Noblesville, Indiana. The cupboard dates from the early 1900s and is primarly oak with pine as a secondary [...]

A $100 Calculator & This Week’s Drop-off Info

Man, am I good.  I don’t know if it’s a sixth sense or just dumb luck, but I seem to have the uncanny ability to identify items that are worth a lot of money. For years, I used this skill with books.  On dozens of occasions I purchased a book for fifty cents and sold [...]

Mary Jensen’s Big Donation

Buy This Table and Free My Soul!

Do you ever feel as if your possessions are weighing you down? I can do you one better. We recently received a very nice Queen Anne style cherry dining room table. With its leaf, the oblong-shaped table measures approximately 72″ long. It’s in very nice condition with a few scratches and scuffs that can be [...]

This Week: Cat Butts, A Historical Print and Everything In Between

It’s not pretty, but that headline sums up what we collected during last Saturday’s donation day for the MV Big Flea. Once again, about 20 families donated a wide array of items for the April 26 MV Big Flea, including a soon-to-be-revealed item worth at least $500.  Thank you to everyone that made a donation; [...]

OMG…we got a $500 item!

Are you sitting down (like Mike Wilker last Saturday)? Good. On Saturday, we held our usual MV Big Flea donation extravaganza. We picked up items from families in Alexandria as well as Fairfax County and Arlington. About a dozen families also dropped off items at our storage facility. We received a lot of great items [...]

Rise Up Against the Yard Sale!

Warm weather is upon us. And for many, that means a yard sale is in the works. But have you ever thought about what a hassle a yard sale can be? It’s much easier to donate your items this Saturday, March 15, to the MV Big Flea. As for yard sales, first you have to [...]

2500 & 5000 = A Big Success (so far)

The MV Big Flea is happy to report that it has raised $2500 and generated more than 5000 visitors to its website over the last month. Both figures bode well for the success of the event, which will be held on April 26, 2008 at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center in the Del Ray section [...]

Saturday’s Furniture Frenzy

Holy smokes did we pick up a lot of furniture this weekend! Thanks to the generosity of more than a dozen Alexandria (and Arlington) families, our second storage facility is nearly 50% filled! One of the largest donations came from Loraine West of Del Ray. She donated a matching bedroom set that included a headboard, [...]