How can 50 cents change the future?

Shop with any Finders Keepers Store this Earth Day weekend (April 22nd + 23rd only) and help your world and refugees from all over the globe that now call Atlanta home. Residents of our refugee community often can't afford tampons or sanitary pads, and simply go without. Just bring in a package of tampons or sanitary pads for residents of Atlanta's refugee community and we'll take 10% off of your total purchase at any of our stores on April 22nd and 23rd.

What if 50 cents could change the future? For girls in developing countries who miss a week of school each month during menstruation, 50 cents buys a month of sanitary supplies and an uninterrupted education. 50 Cents Period, a joint project of Just Cause, Inc., and the LaVya Initiative, represents a worldwide network of women dedicated to creating more options for girls by providing supplies, facilities and education related to menstruation. The solution is simple; the impact lasts a lifetime. (from http://www.50centsperiod.com/)

Bag Sale #1

The Finders Keepers Bag Sale is easily one of the biggest semi-annual events of the year for our stores. And this season, we had saved so much merchandise for the bag sale - that we decided to have two! Our first bag sale was a huge success, and raised $1890 for Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta. Our customers rock!!

Summer Clearance Bag Sale - 2010

We spend a couple of hours setting up bag sale: roping off the parking lot, blocking off the driveway to thru-traffic, rolling out racks (and racks) of clothing, lining up shoes, hauling out armfuls of handbags, and mentally preparing ourselves for the best kind of madness and mahem there is: the first five minutes of Bag Sale. And last Saturday was no exception. The line started before dawn, and by the time 9am arrived over one hundred people stretched across the store front and down Lake Street.

And then Bonnie, owner of Finders Keepers and our Fearless Leader, introduced Haji, a refugee from Sierra Leone, who works at our Furnishings location. Haji and other refugees are the reason - the real reason - that we hold this semi-annual event. Shoppers can stuff bags full of clearance merchandise for only $10 a bag and 100% of the proceeds from our Bag Sales go directly to Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA.) Last Saturday's Bag Sale raised $1638 for this very worthy, very necessary cause. I couldn't help but wonder what he thought about the event. But just the idea of it made me burst into big, pregnant-lady tears and I didn't want to be a blubbery, teary mess when I asked him because I have never seen him cry. In fact he smiles. A lot.

I've posted pictures below. Be sure to check out our youtube page for video clips of interviews and the total madness of Bag Sale! And take a peek at Finders Keepers Furnishings blog to see pictures from RRISA's Artists Market, which showcased products from beaders, weavers, and painters!




Forget gilded streets - how about shoe-lined sidewalks?

Bag Sale Enthusiasts waited for hours for the 9am start

So neat and tidy... not for long!

Three stylish shoppers await the start

What a fun way to start your Saturday!

The line just kept on going...

and going...

Jessica armed and ready to collect money!
Shoppers could stuff as many bags as they wanted for just $10 a bag!

I think Bag Sale had been underway for about... 90 seconds...

They came. They saw. They shopped. And they supported a great cause!

Way to multi-task! Get in some shopping and some strength training!

There are clothes down there?

Time elapsed: less than 5 minutes and the rack is almost clear!

Hi Haji! One day I'm going to ask you what you think about all this!

Meet Tessa and Leanne - representatives from RRISA.
Check out their website at: http://www.rrisa.org/

Finders Keepers Bag Sale - Fall 2010 Round 1

Round 1? Yep! Does that imply a Round 2? Of COURSE! For those of you who have never rushed a Bag Sale Event, I'll give you the run down: inventory in our clothing stores expires after a certain amount of time. So we take it off the sales floor and either donate it directly to a charity, or we save up a stock pile for our Bag Sale event - which is also for charity. But instead of giving them clothing we raise money from the sale of the expired clothes and we send 100% of the proceeds to one of our favorite charities: Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA).


The best part, here's how the money is raised: We take all of the stockpiled expired merchandise from the whole season (and from both stores) and hang it up in the parking lot of our location in Avondale Estates - Finders Keepers Fashions. You get to take our medium-size shopping bags and stuff them as full as you can get them for $10 a bag - and you can stuff as many bags as you want. 100% of the money raised go DIRECTLY to RRISA - we don't keep a single dime. This bag sale raised $2200 for RRISA's work with the Haitian Medical Evacuees from the January earthquake disaster in Haiti. That $2200 brings us to a total of over $10000 raised so far since the January earthquake.

Want a peek at the madness? We've posted a video below of a short clip from the Bag Sale held last Saturday. Our next Bag Sale will be Saturday, September 25th!