Before joining their friends and family to watch the Superbowl on Sunday, Queen Anne parents, teachers and students volunteered their time running the Help for Haiti Rummage Sale, raising just shy of $20,000 for post-earthquake aide.

This is the second time Coe Elementary, John Hay and McClure Middle School have gotten together to run a major sale event for charity. The three schools first teamed up in 2005, just after the tsunami, and successfully raised $10,000. When the earthquake hit Haiti, the organizers decided to run the event again. This time they raised $19,200.

“The same group all came together and decided to do it again,” said organizers and former John Hay parent Mimi Gan. Their goal was to beat their previous record. “We’ve almost doubled it!” she said.

As for the sale itself, items varied from used toys and clothes, to housewares, baked goods (the in-house bake sale raised $755 alone) and even some last-minute surprise donations, including a car! According to Gan, the principal of Coe Elementary, Mr. Elliott, drove his car to the rummage sale and began taking bids, eventually selling it for $350.

“I don’t know how old it was,” Gan said. “He was very honest about it – there were some things wrong with it. But it sold!”

(This is Mr. Elliott’s fifth and last year at Coe. He will be moving to the new Old Hay, Queen Anne Elementary for the 2010-2011 school year).

Volunteers said the rummage sale stayed relatively busy from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., when the crowds were taken over by football frenzy.

“We had a steady flow of people most of the day. At the end, we did a Craig’s list blast to get rid of as much as we could. We advertised $5 for what you could take out,” said fellow parent and volunteer Stacy Lawson. As for the results, “We were ecstatic,” she said.

“It was great fun,” Gan said. “It was a great community builder and people were so generous.”

According to Gan the money will be dispersed evenly between three aid organizations, the American Red Cross, Partners in Health and Project Hope.

(Thanks to Eileen Nishi for the pictures!)

This is just a reminder that the Help for Haiti Rummage Sale, a joint venture between neighborhood schools Coe Elementary, John Hay and McClure Middle School, is this Sunday, February 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Coe gym (located at located at 2424 7th Ave W).

Donations of gently used goods to be sold at the rummage sale can be made from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Friday, February 5 at Coe and Hay, and on Saturday, February 6 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Coe. All proceeds will benefit the American Red Cross.

There will also be a bake sale at the rummage sale, headed by the folks at John Hay. Baked goods can be dropped off at Coe Elementary on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Parents and kids interested in volunteering their time at the bake sale should contact Kim Clements at 206-963-9589 or kclements@jasdesignbuild.com, or simply show up between 10 .m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday. More information here.

To get involved, contact the following representatives:

John Hay: Susan Sweeney at susweeney@seattleschools.org and Lynn Baker at lybaker@seattleschools.org:

Coe: Becky Lederman at lederman4@msn.com, Lisa Cole at davidandlisacole@mac.com, and Stacy Lawson at slawson7@gmail.com.

McClure: Margarita Vanegas at mvvanegas@seattleschools.org.

General  Information: Lindsay Foody at honeyfoody@yahoo.com, and Mimi Gan at mimigan@msn.com or (206) 390-2312.

Kids from Coe recently ran a bake sale for Haiti, raising $1,645 in one afternoon!

Students from Coe Elementary spent the day yesterday, Saturday, January 23, running a bake sale benefiting those in Haiti. They set up shop outside the closed Peet’s on Queen Anne Ave N and Boston St, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., raising $1,645 for Partners in Health, a non-profit organization founded by Paul Farmer that has been working to support advocacy and health care in Haiti for over 20 years.

Although parents stood watch, it was clear the bake sale was run by the kids themselves, who sent volunteers with trays of treats down a block in each direction to lure in more customers. And for those not in the mood for sweet snacks, a small donation could also buy a magic trick.

Parent Stacy Lawson, who helped organize the event, says it was about teaching the kids that they can make a difference in the world. Read more from her here.

Coe will also be teaming up with John Hay and McClure in just a couple of weeks to host a rummage sale benefiting Haiti on Sunday, February 7. For more details on that and information on how to make a donation, click here.

Kids from Coe Elementary will be hosting a bake sale tomorrow outside the Starbucks on Queen Anne Ave N and Boston St. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Red Square Yoga owner and mom of two at the school, Stacy Lawson, is helping to organize the event. She says Coe has a long track record of charitable work in the community and abroad, powered first and foremost by the students.

“We have a real history of doing social justice work on a level the kids can appreciate,” Lawson said, noting that the school has run a number of succsesful fundraisers in the past, raising over $800 at a bake sale for their sister organization, an all girls school in Afghanistan, and over $10,000 at a rummage sale benefiting tsunami victims.

According to Lawson, the events are about more than just coming together to help those in need – they’re also about teaching students, from an early age, that they can make a difference in the world around them. “The kids play a big part in the organization,” she said. “They host the sale. If they’re old enough, they can help with the baking. They post the fliers. They really understand that they can help impact things that go on around the world. It’s much more about their effort.”

Although Coe is teaming up with John Hay and McClure in just a couple of weeks to host a rummage sale benefiting Haiti, the parents and students from Coe decided that there was more they could do to help the country in wake of such a devastating earthquake, beginning plans for the bake sale on Tuesday.

“We decided that we need to put some focus on Haiti,” Lawson said. Though there will be parents volunteers supervising the event, the kids will be walking up and down Queen Anne Ave promoting the sale and talking about the group the proceeds will benefit, Partners in Health, a non-profit organization founded by Paul Farmer that has been working to support advocacy and health care in Haiti for over 20 years.

“Really this is about the kids. They’ll be on the street and they’ll be walking around and trying to get people to go come to the bake sale,” Lawson said. “We encourage them to talk about the issues and speak to about the organization that we’re contribute to.”

Lawson says they chose Partners in Health because of their longstanding work in helping Haiti from the inside out. “He’s on the ground in Haiti and he’s doing work,” she said. “[Paul Farmer is] not just about bringing in international relief teams, but he’s about helping locals solve their own problems.”

If you can’t make it to the bake sale tomorrow, you can still help by participating in the rummage sale between Coe, John Hay and McClure, which will be held on on Sunday February 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Coe gym, located at 2424 7th Ave W. You can donate gently used items for the sale from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Friday, February 5 at Coe and Hay, and on Saturday, February 6 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Coe.

Lawson hopes that the rummage sale, which has been a successful fundraiser in the past, will again raise a large sum. “We feel that even in this down-turned economy, this is still something people can do, buying second-hand,” she said.

For more details and contact information for the rummage sale, click here. To support the bake sale, swing by Queen Anne Ave and Boston St. between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Three more Queen Anne businesses and organizations have stepped up to help those in need in Haiti. The owners of two neighborhood restaurants – Betty and Crow – have decided to donate ALL of tonight’s proceeds to Doctors Without Borders for Haitian relief. They anticipate a lot of community support, so if you’d like to dine out for a good cause tonight, the owners suggest you make a reservation.

Betty is located at 1507 Queen Anne Ave N. Call (206) 352-3773 to make a reservation. Crow is located at 823 5th Ave. N. Call (206) 823-8800 for reservations. You can check out the menus for both here: Betty & Crow.

If you can’t eat out for Haiti tonight, Coe Elementary, John Hay and McClure Middle School will be hosting a Help for Haiti Rummage Sale in the Coe gym from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 7. You can donate gently used goods to be sold at the rummage sale on from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Friday, February 5 at Coe and Hay, and on Saturday, February 6 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Coe gym, located at 2424 7th Ave W. All proceeds from the sale will benefit the American Red Cross. They also need volunteers and snacks for the bake sale. Details here. Interested parties may contact the following people at each school for more information.

John Hay: Susan Sweeney at susweeney@seattleschools.org and Lynn Baker at lybaker@seattleschools.org:

Coe: Becky Lederman at lederman4@msn.com, Lisa Cole at davidandlisacole@mac.com, and Stacy Lawson at slawson7@gmail.com.

McClure: Margarita Vanegas at mvvanegas@seattleschools.org.

General  Information: Lindsay Foody at honeyfoody@yahoo.com, and Mimi Gan at mimigan@msn.com or (206) 390-2312.

For other restaurants donating proceeds to Haiti around town, click here. And if you have a sweet tooth, specifically for organic, fair trade, local chocolate, then buy one of these two Theo chocolate bars – the local chocolate maker will be donating 100 percent of the sales of their two most popular bars to help bring fresh water to Haiti earthquake victims. Read the full story at sister-site Fremont Universe.