These are the days, my friend

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/04/2021 (769 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This will be known as ‘the year that was’ in more ways than one.  The ‘before times’ will have milestones with anniversaries in 2021.

This year we will have had 50 years of  “You deserve a break today, at McDonald’s.”

 Imagine that, five decades of those quarter-pounders messing with healthy menus.

 Imagine, John Lennon’s signature song, will have been sung at graduations, funerals and peace rallies for 50 years as of this summer. FedEx has been getting packages door to door overnight for 50 years. And for 50 years it’s been possible to open those packages while sipping a cup of coffee from Starbucks.

If you stayed up too late watching the Oscars on Sunday night, you could take some ibuprofen, a headache cure for five decades.  Many a parent has also carried a supply of those in the 50 years that Walt Disney World has existed.

All this reminiscing led me to look around Crescentwood, and I see this is the 30th anniversary of a favourite neighbourhood destination.

I refer to the Jumbo Sale at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg, located at 603 Wellington Cres., which is also celebrating its 130th anniversary in 2021.  

This year, once pandemic restrictions permit the sale to be held, things will look different from past sales when throngs came from all over the city. 

The entrance will be monitored by Bear Clan volunteers, sellers will be gloved, contact information will have to be given, masks and hand sanitization will be mandatory, shoppers must remain six feet apart and traffic will be one way.

Thanks to 30-year volunteers Steve Lennon, Linda Henderson and Annette Lowe, tradition and much-needed fundraising will carry on while keeping everyone safe, which is why shoppers will be asked to use exact change only. 

The trio has wonderful memories of community building, meeting great people and most of all, just plain fun.

For Henderson, who has been a cashier, security and public relations person, three decades of Jumbo has meant community involvement and social justice. 

“We pay it forward by donating unsold items to Tommy Prince Place, SSCOPE and Salvation Army,” she said.

 One of Linda’s most memorable donations was a matchbox car toy set valued at $900. She finds the fall offshoot of the Jumbo Sale,  the furniture, art and book (FAB) Sale to be equally well-attended.

For Lowe, who pioneered Jumbo’s La Boutique, the pandemic means that select items will be bagged on tables for the outdoor sale.  She says that “no virus can take away the camaraderie the sales offer.”

 Published poet and Jumbo co-ordinator Lennon has raised a quarter million dollars in sales since 1991.

“Winnipeggers love a bargain,” he said, “and thanks to them attending Jumbo sales, the church has been able to offer a variety of services to the community.”             

Promoting awareness of re-using to keep things out of the landfill is a major motivation of Steve’s passion for Jumbo sales. 

“Now more than ever, we need to be proactive in protecting the environment,” he says.  These are the days my friend, may caring for each other and the planet never end.  

Heather Emberley is a community correspondent for Crescentwood. Email her at heather.emberley@gmail.com if you have a story suggestion.