Goods for Good Isn’t About What You’re Selling, But Why You’re Selling

It’s not what you’re selling in Northfield this weekend, but why you’re selling it.

My family is conducting one of the roughly two dozen garage sales planned as part of this weekend’s Goods for Good fundraising effort.

On Saturday morning, we’re planning to cover our front yard and driveway with our unused stuff to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Friends, co-workers and folks we don’t even know are contributing their spare stuff to the cause, too. We’re grateful for their help.

All of the money we raise will be donated to the AFSP’s Out of the Darkness Overnight, an 18-mile walk in Washington, D.C. on June 1 that’s expected to raise millions of dollars to fund suicide prevention efforts. My sister-in-law and aunt are taking part.

I’ve written a number of times on Patch why my family supports the Overnight. Simply put, my family continues to be impacted by suicide three decades after my wife’s mother took her own life.

Take a look at the roster of families, groups and organizations that registered their sales, and you’ll quickly discover a novel-full of stories as for why folks are participating in the Goods for Good effort.

Here is a list of the sales and the causes that will be supported:

• 1710 Riverview Drive—Northfield Library’s Teen Advisory Board
• 302 Maple St.—TORCH
• 2018 Jefferson Road, Suite 1—Prairie’s Edge Humane Society
• 904 Crocus Court—Northfield Public Library
• 340 Montessori Court—Northfield Montessori
• Bridge Square—Northfield Garden Club
• 410 Odd Fellows Lane—Three Links Auxiliary
• 1101 Winona St.—Prairie Creek Community School and Arcadia Charter School
• 2200 Valley Drive—American Cancer Society
• 215 Manitou St.—Northfield Food Shelf
• 806 East Ridge Drive—Community Action Center of Northfield
• 1321 North Ave.—Bethel Church
• 1401 Maple St.—Methodist Missions
• 2013 Sibley View Lane—Northfield Early Childhood Programs
• 1305 Honeylocust Drive—Northfield Evangelical Free Church youth group summer mission projects
• 200 Division St., Suite 140—Crisis Pregnancy Center of Northfield
• 29145 Northfield Blvd.—Habitat for Humanity
• 710 Sibley Drive—Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America and College Mo-Fant for Scholarships
• 512 Washington St.—Quaker Church Building Fund
• 216 Spring St.—St. Dominic’s School
• Oak Lawn Drive—Northfield Area Family YMCA
• 100 Madison St.—Knots for Thai
• 607 Washington St.—AFSP
• 801 Aldrich Drive—Crisis Pregnancy Center of Northfield

Click here for a map of sale sites and more information about each garage sale.

Candy Taylor—executive director of 5th Bridge, the Northfield-based nonprofit that spearheads Goods for Good—not only is Goods for Good’s most vocal backer, but is a participant, as well. When I visited here earlier this week, she was busy preparing for her sale, which she conducts annually to support the CAC.

If you make it out to any of the Goods for Good sales this weekend, take a moment and ask the sales people the cause they are supporting. That way, you might bring home a real treasure.

For more information about Goods for Good:

• Click here to go to the announcement posted by 5th Bridge on Patch.
• Click here to go to the 5th Bridge website.