Thank you Cristina & Jose!

Every new friend is a new adventure and the start of more memories. I met Cristina and Jose only a few months ago but we’ve already shared good laughs, books, and stories about our lives in Europe. It’s so beautiful when we meet new people, hear their stories, show support and get inspired by their energy and wisdom. And that is exactly how I feel about my two new dear friends. ❤

Yesterday, Cristina and Jose organized a “Mega” Stoop Sale in Park Slope to support run2buildschools. It was such a beautiful day. We laughed, hugged, worked hard and raised $1,246.75 for our school in Nicaragua! Jose was in charge of the whole “operation” and worked really hard for the last couple of weeks – always getting more clothes, shoes, books, kitchenware, and other cute stuff from his friends. Weather forecast was predicting rain on Saturday, so we really thought the stoop sale won’t happen this weekend. But Saturday morning around 4am, Jose decided that the Mega Stoop Sale was on!!! And it was the best decision ever. Weather turned out to be just perfect, no rain and the temperature was pleasant. By 6am Jose and I posted on all social media of information about the stoop sale; we were a little bit nervous about the turn out because of the last minute announcement. But it turned out to be great. Lots of people stopped by, chatted with us, donated money, and bought lots of items!

Beautiful Niara, Jose’s niece from Spain, was there all day to help us as well. A little bit later my friend Brian came by, brought all his running shoes and spent the rest of the day with us. I really loved the day! It felt like we were a loving little family working together to accomplish our dream.

Here are some cute pictures I took with my RebelT2i camera. I love photography and tried really hard to get cute shots so I can share our experience with you. I hope you like them and enjoy them!

 

Jose woke up really early in the morning, spread flyers around the neighborhood and advertised the stoop sale on Brooklyn streets!

Pretty flyers!

So many people stopped by and checked out our stuff!

We had so many pretty things! Beautiful kitchenware, paintings, shoes, cute purses and some really nice clothes!

 

Jose, trying on a suit for our lovely customer! She bought the suit for her husband ❤

I liked our donation bottle a lot 🙂 People kept asking “how are you going to take that money out” – little they knew that Jose is an expert in using chop sticks! 🙂

This was before noon and we had made a bit more than $500, including donations! My dear friend, Kymian, donated two big bags of beautiful clothes. This dress was from her and we sold it right away for $10.

Jose, Brian and I – Thank you so much for all our work and support!

 

We also had lots of children yesterday.  ❤ They loved our toys and were all very curios about our kids books.

Cute little boy playing with Thomas train!

❤

She loved our kids books selection! ❤

Hello sweet cutie pie!

 

How adorable is this picture of Jose and cute little Lucy?!! I fell in love with Lucy ❤

I loved Lucy’s little hands. 🙂 She was holding really tight on my fingers.

We also had lots of cute dogs yesterday 🙂

Imzie and Argi ❤

Argi listening to Brian’s advice. 🙂

 

Hello sweet Chubby!!! Long time no see 🙂 ❤

 

Beautiful Argi!

I can’t remember this little guy’s name but he LOVED playing! So cute!

At 5pm we were done! Took us about an hour to clean, get everything inside the boxes and back to Jose’s basement. We still have SO MUCH stuff left. Jose decided to host another stoop sale in October (will keep you posted and I promise it will not be a last minute announcement again 🙂 ) after I return from Chile where I am running the Patagonian Marathon.

Once upstairs in Jose and Cristina’s apartment, we opened a champagne and  had a toast for love, peace and our beautiful day! ❤  The bracelet and hundreds more were donated to run2buildschools by my beautiful and dear friend, Kelly. We gave bracelets away to customers who spent more than $10 at the stoop sale. They really loved them! Thank you so much dear Kelly. ❤

Kelly came by as well and brought us these really yummy deserts! So good and perfect with our champagne 🙂

 

Around 8pm we were ready to count the money. I kept saying we must have raised close to $1000 but no one seemed to have shared my optimism 🙂 We took guesses and ranges were between $850 and $1000

 

And…the final number was $1,246.75!!!!! We were filled with so much joy! The love and happiness felt so real and heavy in that room at that moment. I got so emotional and was shaking a little bit. I saw tears in Cristina’s eyes as well. It was a memory that I will treasure for the rest of my life. ❤

 

I love this picture of Jose and Imzie. Jose was truly the HEART of this wonderful project. ❤ Your kindness, beautiful energy and love for life are inspiring dear Jose. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support and friendship.

THANK YOU Jose, Cristina, Niara, Brian, Kymian, Andrea, Kelly, Michael and everyone who donated items to our stoop sale, everyone who bought our stuff, who donated money and who stopped by to share a hug and a smile! I am forever grateful. ❤

Here is a beautiful song I am dedicating to everyone who helped and donated to this project.