Happening today: Baby Maarten’s benefit sale at Peace Lutheran

| Gatewood | How to help | West Seattle news

That’s the biggest of three rooms of donated items going on sale starting at 9 this morning at Peace Lutheran Church (NE corner of Thistle/39th; map), with the proceeds to help Maarten, a 1-year-old fighting a brain tumor. You first saw Maarten’s story here two weeks ago; now the big sale is here, today and tomorrow. Lots more information at the Help Maarten website, including an update on how he’s doing, and how you can help if you can’t make it to the sale – but if you can, not only will you find the giant room of stuff you see in our photo, but also in other rooms, musical instruments, furniture, even artworks – we dropped by as organizer Claudia and other volunteers were working Thursday night to get it all organized. And a bake sale too!

Kayleigh September 18, 2009 (8:18 am)

Thank you–will try to make it tonight after work before they close. Their website says they close at 6.

FYI September 18, 2009 (8:39 am)

church hyperlink isn’t working

Mike September 18, 2009 (8:48 am)

It’s .org http://www.peacelutheranseattle.org/

WSB September 18, 2009 (9:31 am)

Sorry, fixed.

yeah!! September 18, 2009 (10:31 am)

I would love to hear what they raise for this beautiful little boy. If only as a testament to what a community can do for one person.

Claudia September 18, 2009 (9:46 pm)

Hello! Thank you everyone for coming out and for your generosity! We will post something on the helpmaarten.blogspot.com site with how much we have all raised. Also, I’ll make sure to contact WS blog to give the final tally. We still have loads of good items. At about 2pm tomorrow we’ll have nearly all items at least half off, so please come on over! Many great baby items left in addition to many other finds. Hope to see you tomorrow between 8 and 5pm. Thanks again!

Katy W. September 18, 2009 (11:30 pm)

Kudos to Claudia and others for putting on this incredible event to benefit this precious little boy. I was at the sale today and there were truly many great deals to be had. Please go and show your support for Maarten and his family. What a great community we live in!

Sacha September 19, 2009 (5:44 am)

A post here from Maarten’s mom, Sacha. We are still in Boston for the proton radiation therapy, but we are following the sale by internet. When we saw the first pictures we just couldn’t (and still can’t) believe our eyes, SOOO MANY DONATIONS!!!!! People have been very very generous, it is just unbelievable. So I wanted to use this space to start thanking Claudia and all the people involved (they are many) for doing this for us. It makes us feel very special!
I hope you enjoy the sale!

smg September 19, 2009 (8:47 am)

I guess if people wanted to donate just in general, look into givinganon.org. A Bellingham based anonymous community giving program.

Val Vashon September 19, 2009 (4:39 pm)

There’s still a complete Blue & White Macintosh G-3 system there for all of $10! Tower, mouse, keyboard and matching monitor- a bit of clean up and you would have a great looking and running system.

WSB September 19, 2009 (4:50 pm)

Wow, saw that the other day and it reminded us of a few Macs ago … very festive color scheme.

Claudia September 19, 2009 (10:27 pm)

We’ll have the total tomorrow, but I just had to say that one of my favorite moments of today was when a man walked in the sale as we were packing up and looked at that brightly colored Mac computer and said, “What’s that?” The woman he was with said very matter of factly, “It’s a computer.” I watched him stare at it inquisitively and then happily told him he could have it for free if he wanted. I haven’t seen a smile that big in a long time on an adult. This has been a wonderful couple of days. Thank you all.

WSB September 19, 2009 (10:33 pm)

Great, we’ll await the total – I’ve got a couple other fundraiser totals from this weekend I’ll hang onto till we can do one big wrapup. We’ll keep an eye on the helpmaarten website but do also let us all know about any milestones :) – TR

Val Vashon September 20, 2009 (12:28 pm)

I’m glad somebody got the whole computer and seems to be excited about it. It’s a great first computer, and there is lots of support out there in the Mac community. I wanted to buy just the monitor to go with my G3 but was reminded by my better half of my lack of desk space, and the need to maybe get a flat panel.

Claudia September 21, 2009 (9:30 am)

People are still making donations via the paypal and bank accounts (helpmaarten.blogspot.com) but as of right now, the total raised is $6,545.20!!!!! Thank you everyone. We are all speechless with tears in our eyes. I’ve let the WSB know and they have information to do one big wrap up, but I thought I’d let people know here also.
Also, I think it was Francesca who bought a stroller from us and left behind the fabric rain/sun shade that went with it. Francesca, if you read this let me know and I can get it to you!