Conflict and Change

Dolores Maisonneuve and her husband Gordon Haskins,  who have lived in East Ham for 8 years, organised a credit crunch yard sale at their home on Saturday and Sunday Sept 12&13th. They received donations from neighbours and friends including an 8 year boy called Raoul who donated most of his toys to help raise money for charity - including most of his Action Man and Power Rangers! As well as getting wonderful bargains, neighbours got the opportunity to meet each other and chat. The event was great fun. Dolores and Gordon are Canadian and yard sales are very popular there. They decided to do a sale for the first time in 2007. Due to the popularity, novelty and requests by the people in the neighbourhood they have made it an annual event and have raised £3000 for Conflict and Change! Several neighbours told them at the weekend that they look forward to the yard sale and one mum said her kids got up early so they could come to the event and get some deals.
The proceeds were donated to Conflict and Change, a Newham charity where Dolores volunteers which aims to build understanding between the different communities living in Newham.
This year Dolores and Gordon raised an amazing £1000 and to add icing on the cake, Gordon’s employer, the Royal Bank of Scotland, is generously matching the sum with a further £1000.