Donate An Auction Item: Fill & Download for Free

My sister stole my daughter’s teddy bear collection. For 20 years I gave my daughter a teddy bear for her birthday and Christmas, and a few other holidays and events in between. When my daughter turned 16, she asked that I not buy quite so many so I cut back to just her birthday and only smaller ones like TY bears. You can imagine the collection she had by the time she was 20. She kept her most special ones in Rubbermaid bins in our shed so they wouldn’t get dirty or ruined by friends accidentally.Then one year my sister asked our father, who lived with my daughter and me, if she could stay with us while she looked for a job. I reluctantly said yes after Dad said it would be for a short time. Well, after a month she did find a job at a nursing home.About a month later my daughter came to me and said she had just gone into the LOCKED shed to add another bear to her collection and found that all the bins were gone.Turns out there was an auction at the nursing home and all employees were told that they could donate items to be auctioned if they wanted to. My sister stole 20 years of teddy bears from my daughter to try and make a good impression at her new job.In that collection was Rainbow, the first bear I bought my daughter. That bear was in pristine condition because I put it under glass and it stayed there until my daughter was old enough to decide what she wanted to do with it. She wrapped Rainbow in tissue paper with a packet of silica and tied her in a plastic bag and put her in one of the bins.I told my sister she had one hour to get out, and she was never to come to my house again.

My mother’s first store opened on Danforth Ave in Toronto. She named it The Junkery. She bought large odd job lots of furniture, usually from an auction, and cleaned them for resale.One such lot had a rather nice oak low boy with two drawers. Both drawers had very old fur coats in rough condition. She was going to donate them to a local amateur theatre group.I was helping and threw the coats over a desk and they “thunked” loudly.Curious, we spread out the coats and found, in the collars and bottom edge, two inch tubes that had been carefully sewn in.We picked apart the stitching and there was a cascade of jewellery. Rosaries, crosses, bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings, several slim watches and chains. Many pieces had gem stones.The coats had Paris labels, but no other names.We speculated they had belonged to smugglers or refugees. The gold marks were from all over Europe.Mother found out from Mr Mclean, the auctioneer, the furniture came from an old warehouse that was being demolished. She wisely did not mention our find.She sold it all, discretely, over a three-year period, which paid her rent and expenses and formed the basis for her business for the next 12 years.One item remains, a small pinky ring, which I have worn ever since. 52 years.

I feel your pain and there isn't a good answer.However, a basket like this would be welcomed at your local school or boys-and-girls club as a raffle prize or silent-auction item. In other words, you can donate it to the charity of your choice and it will go to good use.