A local garage sale for charity has helped out a local women’s shelter, and this is just another example of the community coming together to help others out. The event raised $7,000 for the Fort McMurray Family Crisis Society’s Unity House women’s shelter. The Royal LePage True North Realty’s National Garage Sale for Shelter event has become an annual event, and this was the 7^th year in a row that Royal LePage True North Realty has come through for charity. True North Realty owner Marian Barry said “It went really well, we were crazy busy. Every Mother’s Day weekend for the past seven years, all Royal LePage real estate companies across Canada hold a garage sale on the same day.” Local residents made donations to the garage sale, and Matco Moving Storage donated their services and picked up the donations.

The charity garage sale for the local women’s shelter was proof of support from the local community Barry said “(It’s) overwhelming, actually. We’ve had so many people donate items to us to put in the garage sale. It’s fun, right? It’s a ton of work, but everybody has a great time.” According to Family Crisis Society executive director Michele Taylor “We totally depend on it for operations of Unity House. You have to get community support, community fundraising … it’s absolutely fundamental to us continuing to offer programs and services.” The amount raised by the event this year took in a little less than half of last years fundraising total. Taylor responded “It sounds like we might be a little bit down this year and that’s because of the economic climate that we’re in. We’re finding that sponsorship of our events is way down, but donations are steady.”