Tagging tag sale items is actually sort of fun!

So it's been a little over a week since items started being brought in for the tag sale, and many more items have come in than what I initially expected. There are now several boxes (at least 7) in the school basement of items that have been labeled by price (with little colored tags that represent a different price) ready to go for the tag sale. It's surprising that so many items could be tagged in about an hour, but it took a lot of teamwork to get it done.

I stayed after school with Mrs. Hyer and three of the girls from Prom Committee and we first took the items out of the boxes and made a key with the different stickers (red, blue, green, and yellow) and the price that each sticker would represent on an item. A $5 item would be tagged red, a $3 item would be tagged yellow, a $2 item would be tagged blue, and a $1 item would be tagged green. A white sticker would represent an item that is over $5 and the customer can bargain with us for a price over that amount, and items that were not tagged at all were under $1 and customers can also suggest a reasonable price for the item there too. I was told to tag only the very valuable items for $5 because we want to sell as much as we can for affordable prices and that we should sell items for less if it comes down to it. There were a lot of items and a variety of items too, with everything from pillows to pants, to coffee makers to books, and even vases, cups, mugs, containers, and more. Some of the items will probably sell fast, such as some of the mugs, books, and electrical appliances such as coffee makers and the hair straightener that someone brought in, but some of the other items might not sell, such as clothes and pillows, in which case those items will be sent to a swap shop. I tried to price most of the items for $1 or $2, but some items, such as some of the bigger books and vases and mugs I felt were more appropriately priced at $3. I rarely marked anything $5, but a good number of items were marked for that price.

After all of the bags and boxes of items were emptied and marked, we got boxes out and put all of the items marked $5 in one box, all of the items marked $3 in other boxes (more than one was needed), and the items marked $2 and $1 are now in a few boxes, and the boxes were moved closely together so that people who go in the basement will see that the items belong together and are for the same cause, so that nothing gets moved or misplaced before the tag sale.

Every time I contribute to Prom Committee I always remind myself why I joined in the first place. One of the reasons I joined was so that I can make some new friends who share a common goal (in this case, fund-raising), so that I might learn how to take on new challenges (learning objective 2) and so that I can learn to work collaboratively with others (learning objective 4 right there). I have definitely been trying to achieve both of my goals, and I am doing it more and more week by week. Today I was forced to work collaboratively with others, and to get a job done within a specific time constraint (an hour). We got the job done relatively quickly and were all on the same page and were determined to get it done. Two of the people I worked with today, Emily Setzko and Rachel Crafts, I have never really spoken to them much and wasn't sure what to expect, but they both turned out to be really nice. Before deciding on the price for an item, we checked with one another to see if we agreed as a group, and we worked together to place all of our tagged items in the same place in an organized manner. I am also taking on new challenges because the tag sale was my idea and I am ultimately responsible for its outcome. Without my commitment and hard work it would not happen, although I am not about to take all the credit as I have had much help from others, which I appreciate. This experience has helped me learn to be a leader and to step up to the plate and get a job done, and I am looking forward to the outcome of the tag sale, which I will make sure is a success. In addition, today was sort of fun!

I can honestly say that I didn't expect it to be as successful as it has been, but with my hard work and the hard work of everyone else involved, it has been successful.