Pot of Gold

I crashed late on Saturday night, so yesterday when I heard the alarm go off at 8 – I was pissed off at my hyper social Physical-self for committing to POT OF GOLD – a Rotaract Club of Bombay Airport Initiative. But then my mental-self urged me to get my backside off the get ready for a big day ahead !!!

For those who don't know Pot of Gold or have not had enough of me propagating it – POG is a shopping experience for orphan and street kids. After weeks of hard work we managed to collect 900 - 1000 items including clothes, toys, stationery and art supplies. We not only collected it – We made sure we sort each and every item out for the last day. For most aunties – they saw opportunity to off load their old lingerie, table mats, sari’s etc – mostly out of the scope of this shopping experience. But we did it. We divided them into 9 categoies.
1. BOOKS
2. Girls Clothes – Tops
3. Girls clothes – bottoms
4. Infant Clothes
5. Boy Clothes – Tee’s
6. Boy Clothes – Bottoms
7. Stationary
8. Accessories – shoes, bags, belts, socks etc
9. TOYS

OMG – who could forget TOYS !!!
Yesterday we hosted 185 kids from Abundant Life Ministries and Door Step. Over 5 hours kids sorted through everything and bargained their way to the items they wanted. It was amazing the way the kids conducted themselves - no ruckus and no cribs that they were among the last and all the good things were gone. Touching to see some of the kids buying for their siblings rather than spending the money on themselves. The stall owners seemed to be enjoying themselves far more than the kids.
Most of the 185 of them were inbetween the age of 7 and 12 – which meant BOOKS – the stall that I was handling saw no takers !!! At first I had to snatch them from other counters and get them to my counter.

I also made up a 1 Book for Rs 10 --- But Rs 20 for 3 books !!!

Towards the end – I have to put a 1 book for Rs 10 and get another book absolutely free !!! LOL. I could understand why Books were so unpopular – Ofcourse the TOYS – saw maximum attention. Prices at Rs 60 – whichever you buy – kids actually started bargaining as to why they were prices so expensive.

185 kids went back with happy faces and memories they will treasure and you made it happen. Thank you so much for your contribution to making this event such a resounding huge success. A big round of applause for all our volunteers.