A jumble sale is an event where people raise money for a charity at a club by selling second-hand clothes, books and other items. Rose and Tommy are the chair and the deputy chair of St James’ School English Club.
Rose: We need to buy some more books and DVDs and magazines for the English Corner. I think a jumble sale would earn us quite a bit of money. And it would cost us practically nothing to organise.
Tommy: I agree and so do the other club members I’ve spoken to about it. We wouldn't be short of volunteers to help out, I know that.
Rose: I got the idea of a jumble sale from my cousin in London. Her school held one last month for the sports club and earned around three hundred pounds. It was more than three thousand three hundred Hong Kong dollars.
Tommy: I don’t think we’ve had one here before. People might think it’s a bake sale!
Rose: Ha ha. Yes, perhaps. We will have to do some publicity: flyers and posters.
Tommy: Jamie can be in charge of that. He’s good at designing stuff. What’s the first thing we should do?
Rose: Decide on a date, and where in the school we should hold the sale. We can use some of the tables from the cafeteria. They will be ideal. Then you and I must go see Mr Li, and explain what we would like to do and get his permission to go ahead.
Tommy: We must have the initial plans in place when we go see him. He is a stickler for detail. He’ll ask us a few awkward questions, I know.
Rose: We’ll have it all worked out to the finest detail when we go see him. No problem.
Tommy: What sort of stuff did your cousin sell?
Rose: CDs, dvds, books …..
Tommy: Textbooks?
Rose: She didn't say, but I wouldn't have thought so. The school provides all textbooks. Students don't have to buy them themselves.
Tommy: So there is no market for second-hand school text books in Britain?
Rose: I wouldn't think so. Ok. Let’s make a list of what we would like people to donate and put it on the posters.
Tommy: I’m worried about selling second-hand electrical items like iPods and so on. We can’t be sure they’ll work – or even be safe.
Rose: You’re right. We must say no electrical goods …. oh, and food items.
Tommy: Where are we going to keep the stuff until the day of the sale?
Rose: We’ll ask the caretaker if there is a store room we can use.
Tommy: I think we must tell people when they can bring in items for the sale. Perhaps half an hour before school each day. We’ll get a couple of volunteers each day to man the collection point.
Rose: This all sounds great! I think now we should decide on a date. Then we can call a quick committee meeting next week and put all this to the others.
Tommy: I think a Saturday morning would be best.
Rose: I agree. Let’s have a look at some dates and get all these ideas down on paper.