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″ flat screen televisions. Mark Higgins gave a beautiful farm-style table, four chairs, elegant Windsor bench and leather-topped chest of drawers. Elizabeth Shea gave a 19th century side table and kitchen cart with butcher block top. And Tom Blackwood donated a Victorian table with pink marble top.
And that’s not all! Charlie and Karma Brown gave a gorgeous handmade burl bowl. Josh Turner donated a mountain bike and television set while Bill and Michelle Brandon gave an unusual wicker desk set and cool Mason jar collection. Othes donors include Mary Karstens, Mary Ann Rozzel, Sabrina Detlef, Art and Jennifer Atkins, Troy Hanbury, Shane Manning, Robert Freear, Sophia Hatzigeorgiou, Sara Raak, Joanie Matthews, Liz Johnson, and Hal Cardwell & Devin Reese.
Hal was also among the dads that flexed their muscles on the brisk Saturday morning. Joining him for pickups was the ubiquitous Chris “My Eyes Popped When I Saw Those Flat Screen TV” Ammon and Brian “I Can’t Believe I’ll Be on the Today Show This Wednesday Morning” Reid. Special props are also due to Maria Getoff (who gets the job done), Jack Taylor for loaning us a truck and Salena Zellers Schmidtke for loaning us storage space.
We’re going to collecting items again next Saturday, so please start getting your items together. I just may have to start begging again.
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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!

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 of Alexandria.
Fortunately, Selena Zellers Schmidtke has come to the rescue. Selena, a biomedical engineer who “moonlights” at the Daily Planet wine shop in Del Ray, has offered to let us store items in her garage near the Braddock Road Metro station. I’ll have more details on the exact location and times you can drop off items.



