Teens corral neighborhood to host yard sale for Haiti relief

Max Barab and Sam Schaffer stood over a table of purses with a befuddled look. Picking up a vintage red leather Mark Cross handbag, Sam asked Max a most pressing question: “What about this one? $12 or $15?"

The 15-year-old friends weren’t shopping for a shoulder bag. Instead, they were pricing goods for the massive yard sale they're holding this weekend to benefit Haiti's recovery efforts.

The teens hope to add to the countless benefits geared toward rebuilding Haiti after it was devastated by an earthquake on Jan. 12. They're among a number of Pace Academy students hosting their own fund-raisers for the country.

Max embarked on this project after watching the Hope for Haiti Now concert last month.

“[The earthquake] was pretty devastating to me," Max said. "This is kind of local compared to other disasters like the tsunami."

The teen has three yard sales to his credit, including one in 2005 to benefit Animal Action Rescue and the American Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina survivors, but he hopes this event can beat the $5,000 he raised through that sale. But first, he needed help. Enter friend and fellow freshman Sam.

They sent out their first call for donations via e-mail on Jan. 29, and the items have poured into Max's Buckhead home. Mattresses, sofas, dinnerware, bikes, antique mirrors, coats and nearly a dozen TVs are just a fraction of the goods. One woman whose home had been damaged by flooding gave an intact sleeper sofa. Max's parents are selling some of their life-size cow sculptures from CowParade Atlanta. And PODS Atlanta executive Ed McCrady gave the boys a POD storage unit to hold the items, though the donations quickly outgrew the space and now are stacked throughout Max's home.

The boys keenly tracked down other neighborhood yard sales and picked up leftover items, and they have even driven as far as Macon to retrieve goods.

“It definitely got bigger than we thought," Max said as he and Sam sorted and priced the donations. "If it's your yard sale, you know how much you will have. But with this one, people keep dropping stuff off."

Neighbor Bill Erb didn't hesitate to donate. Erb owned a factory in Haiti that manufactured goods for restaurants until just a few years ago. He said he hasn't been able to reach any of his Haitian contacts.

Among Erb's donations are a pair of antique wooden side chairs with needlepoint cushions his mother stitched. He explained it was a "gut feeling" that prompted him to donate the chairs that had been in his family for nearly 50 years.

"I'm so impressed with what the boys are doing," he said, his voice overcome with emotion. "People don't get too excited about the people of Haiti, but I do."