Utah County sale raises $8,500 for ill 5-year-old
Five-year-old Sadie Huish of Eagle Mountain was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor two months ago that was so advanced, she was immediately qualified as a Make-A-Wish Foundation wish recipient, which exclusively serves children with "life-threatening" medical conditions. She wished for a trip to Disney World, to drive her own kid-sized toy car and to meet Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A day before the big sale, volunteers spent hours preparing heaps of neighborhood donations from vintage big screen TVs to waist-high piles of clothes and stacks of bikes and strollers. "It was like a 12-hour day," one volunteer said about the long Friday while sporting a shirt that read, "For Sadie's Sake."
Not all the items were worn-out, second-hand things like the faux leather couch that somebody had mended with duct-taped and abandoned in the school's entrance. Some were new. Sadie's uncle, Ian Casey, 32, manned a busy table brimming with new items that he brokered to sell for his "beautiful niece." Three hours into the four-hour sale his table alone had racked up around $250, he said.
"I'm basically taking what people will offer me," she said. And when asked if she had felt if buyers were taking advantage of the deals — $120 shoes being bought at $15 — she said no but softened her denial by admitting to wishing for more. "It's never enough, though," she said frankly. "Is it? Not for this cause. But people are being generous with what they have."
Three tables away, just past the father and son lugging a used air hockey table through a swarming isle, Alisa Ottesen's children earnestly sorted through oodles of things on which to spend their hard-earned allowance.
"I told them they could spend all of it here, if they wanted," said Ottesen, who made it clear her suggestions to squander in one place atypical. "But this cause it worth it."
Her elementary-aged son, Jay, went right to work with his $10. He picked up an X-box controller, peeked at its sticker, then looked around and wondered how he was going to spend his next $7.
Recent comments
Sadie,
I hope you are doing well today. I just wanted to tell...
Lory Money | April 16, 2008 at 10:13 a.m.
Sadie, you keep on doing well. You all aways in my prayers and thoughts...
Carol Mack | April 15, 2008 at 2:16 p.m.
We are glad you are doing so well.
You are a brave little girl...
Herb & Geri Jones | April 15, 2008 at 12:30 p.m.
