Garage sale raises more than $3,700 to help rebuild home

A GIGANTIC garage sale in Ocean Grove at the weekend raised more than $3,700 to help rebuild the collapsed home of a mother and her teenage son in Uganda.

Heather Hallam said Livingstone’s Great (Gigantic) Garage Sale (LGGS) was a huge success, with the incredible amount of $3741.20 raised on the day.

Heather is a co-sponsor with Mark Wilkinson of 18 children living in some of the poorest countries in the world, and earlier this year, the pair went to Uganda to visit one of their poorest sponsor children Livingstone, 16, and discovered that the one-room home in which he and his mother Sarah had been living, had fallen down.

Heather said the “Livingstone House Rebuild Fund” hoped to raise $10,000, which was what it would cost to build a small house for Sarah and Livingstone.

“We now only need about $1,200 for the house build to be able to commence,” Heather said.

“I would like to raise some extra money though beyond that amount, so we can buy a single bed, plus a chair each for Sarah and Livingstone, plus potentially also a small chest of drawers (so their small amount of belongings are no longer being kept in boxes) and some lino for the floor to cover the concrete.

“As the front of the little home will have a tiny shop front, I would also like to supply some goods to initially supply the very, very little shop.”

There are still a reasonable amount of items left over from the garage sale, so another will be held on Saturday November 3 at Powell Street West (look for the signs) in Ocean Grove.

For more information, to buy a brick ($10 each) or to donate, visit livingstonehouserebuildfund.com.