The Sunday News
Rodney Manyakaidze, Correspondent
ON a sultry Sunday afternoon, several booths were set up in the Lions Club yard area encircling the inner edges of the fence to allow other stalls to hoard in the middle and ensure maximum usage of space.
The booths were manned by parents and their children with neat piles of their sellable items. The place brims with life, excited chatter crackled in the air as people sell off their items, the more energetic individuals touting their most intriguing articles with unbridled vigour.
Just about anything could be found there as people pawned off any unwanted items at dirt cheap prices. Bargains could be found aplenty. The basic concept is simple and entirely unoriginal, one loads up their vehicle with objects they wish to sell, then drive to a location such as this, and sell their items from the back of the car.
Car booth sales are quite popular in the UK and Mr Barry Painting, the man behind this event saw he had numerous items and thought to himself, “Why not? I just wanted to get rid of some stuff and on Facebook we have bidding wars where one posts an item they want to sell and people bid for it auction style but it’s very time consuming. This is easy, you pack up the stuff you want to get rid of, bring it here and set it up so people can see it, while you sit in the back of your car and have a beer,” said Mr Painting.
While Mr Painting gave it a start, his wife, Kirsty Painting, gave it a touch of empathy and decided it should be for a cause. Anyone who set up shop paid an entrance fee of $20, the proceeds of which, would go to Baby Heroes.
“We wanted to get rid of some stuff, but being a mother as well, I thought we could do it for a good cause,” said Kirsty Painting.
“Baby Heroes are there in most hospitals but here in Bulawayo they are based at Mpilo. The initiative provides support for orphaned and premature babies. They assist to buy formula milk, they put together care packages, provide blankets, they assist in pretty much everything a premature baby would need and donate their time. They do remarkable work and if the mother is in need of anything extra, they do their best to see to provide as well.”
Mrs Painting spoke about the motherly instinct being the driving force behind her desire to make the event charity oriented.
“Once you’re a mum you can’t imagine babies suffering. So, something like this would be close to your heart and you feel the need to make a difference, the need to do as much as you can to alleviate the suffering,” she said.
A few metres from the Painting’s Booth will be donation box labelled Baby Heroes’ about the size of a bathtub with clothing items and several goodies placed in there. This along with the entrance fee are the event’s contribution to the charity. “I don’t know if there will be much raised but one can live in hope,” Mrs. Painting added.
The venue was provided to the Paintings pro bono, as Lions Club have a soft spot for such causes. Amy and Tammy Weller run the Lions Club bar where people get their drinks. The Lions Club membership bar is done subscription style, where members pay a monthly fee, but on this day the bar was open to the public. Tammy Weller didn’t have much to say except, “It’s a good initiative, it might help raise awareness.’
Their bar has been open since May. It’s called “The Office” which is partly ironic, but serves as a convenient alibi for those in domestic situations where they might need one. “If your wife calls you asking where you are, you say I’m at the office,” joked Amy Weller.
Among those who turned up was Kerry, who came with her two kids. A boy and a girl in their early teens who were selling all their old toys and books.
She was following the discussion of the idea of the car booth sale in Bulawayo quite keenly online.
“I saw it on Facebook, and I was following the whole discussion when it was still an idea. It was pretty exciting and for it to come to fruition is great, it allows you to spend the afternoon away from the house,” said Kerry.
Andre Smit had a pretty impressive collection of paintings, whose worth he was unsure of so he invited prospective buyers to make an offer. He said the initiative by the Paintings was a good one as it accorded him the opportunity to dispose his late father’s belongings on behalf of his widowed mother.
“They were staying together at Coronation cottage but the lease agreement says once you’re single you have to leave; you have to move on. She now stays alone in her new apartment, when there is no power there is not much to do. Hopefully I can get her an inverter and maybe one of those open view decoders,” said Smit.
As the afternoon progressed Barry Painting observed that the turnout had been decent considering the event was set up in a hurry. “I think it’s a fair turnout. We got something for our friends at the Baby Heroes section and I’ve sold enough to be buying beers,” said Painting.
“Next time we’ll try to organise parking so that more stalls can be fit in,” he said.
Painting offered his gratitude to Lions Club in his characteristic soft-spoken demeanour.
“I think their support has been good, we hope to do it more often. If it goes towards a good cause it’s a good thing,” he said.
The same sentiments were shared by his wife who said, “An event like this is richly beneficial for everyone involved. There’s lots of cheap new stuff, nowadays, yes, it’s cheap but then it doesn’t last long, people have things lying around at home which are good quality and they’ll sell them for cheap as they don’t need them anymore. So, you can get good quality at a great price, even though it might be old, at the same time giving out something for a worthy cause,” she added.
