In 1989, I was very fortunate to be the Potentate of the Khartum Shrine organization. One August day, Shrine board member Gil Fraser and I were going over the mail at Shrine House (now 529 Wellington, the restaurant). In the stack was a letter to many organizations from Mrs. Janice Filmon, soliciting funds for the new CancerCare Manitoba building that was under construction. The mission of the Shrine of North America is to assist the burned and crippled child by providing no cost care in any one of our 22 hospitals, but the opportunity to support the wonderful work of CancerCare struck a chord with us both.

Before we could do anything, we had to check with the Imperial Potentate in Tampa Florida. His name was George Washington Powell who I knew quite well. We explained our mission and he gave his blessing.

The next step was to quickly get the Unit Presidents of the 3400 Shriners of Khartum together to brainstorm what we could do to fundraise for CancerCare. After much consideration, the group settled on a Mega Garage Sale. But where could we hold it and how fast could we pull this off? We were extremely fortunate to have one of our members, Les Fawley, step up to the plate. This fantastically organized individual agreed to chair the project.

Les immediately put all his energy into locating a space for our Mega Garage Sale. He came up with the old Safeway store in the Cross Roads Shopping Centre. The property was owned by the CN Pension Fund, and a call was placed to the person in charge. They agreed to let us have the building free of charge. The challenge now facing our group was that, because it was vacant, many departments of the City would need to sign off on the project - licensing, inspections and all types of approvals. Here is where Gil Fraser worked his magic. Within a blur of time all City departments, along with the Mayor and Council, gave their blessing.

A fellow Shriner owned a cleaning company and offered to clean the premises to Health & Safety standards at no cost. Another Shriner printed up 2400 posters and arranged a committee to distribute them to businesses and other locations throughout the province. Each Shrine unit was responsible for their own space and would have the honour of presenting their proceeds to the CancerCare people themselves. Much competition developed among the member units. They had barely two weeks to prepare for this massive undertaking and one week to set up. The preparations took on a circus-like atmosphere.

To help along the advertisement of the event, I contacted all the media people we knew. We had no funds for any advertising as all proceeds were going to CancerCare. The media people were fantastic. We got free radio, TV and print coverage daily.  

Every day for a week, garage sale merchandise arrived by car and truck. Items of every shape, size and vintage was put on display and priced to move!  Soon, the big day arrived. We had a line up of a 1000 people by 7:30 a.m. I know this because that’s when I stopped counting.

The giant, empty Safeway was filled wall to wall with treasures and treasure hunters; laughing, bartering and finding the perfect thing. The excitement was contagious and the energy in the room was almost palpable. The execution of this enormous undertaking was flawless, with everyone playing their parts to perfection. The Provost Corps looked after security. The Motor Patrol, Cycle Escort, Kops, Vintage Cars, Portage Little Cars, Patrol, Directors Staff, Ritualistic Unit, Skooters, and Ruff Riders manned their tables and helped the buyers. The Drum Corps, Pipes & Drums, The Fifes & Drums and the Oriental Band, Orchestra entertained non-stop at the front of the store. Outside, the Horse Guard gave free rides. In full clown makeup all day, the Komedians kept everything loose and everyone smiling.

A group occupied the back of the store and sold large items like bikes, furniture with credit going to the individual units. During the whole day, countless wives, kids and friends helped everything run smoothly.

At the end of the sale, the local thrift store people offered to take what ever was left over. All of the Shrine units cleaned up the premises and stacked the tables. Then they tallied up their hard-earned proceeds for presentation later that night at Shrine House. The Shrine Executive supplied the coffee & dainties for the festive event. Don Kirton of CJOB fame, was the Master of Ceremonies. Every unit was piped to the podium in true Shrine style. There they presented their proceeds to an overwhelmed Dr. Israels of CancerCare. Our goal was to have fun and make a contribution. We had hoped to be able to raise $10,000. The final tally was just shy of $25,000. A marvelous achievement to those dedicated men and women. What a day!
 
They say what goes around comes around. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. My son in law, age 50, was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and given a 20% chance of survival.  After much chemo and 3 major operations he, along with countless other cancer patients, is doing well. Thank you CancerCare Manitoba.   

Ken Kristjanson
June 2022