In the wake of recent disaster in Haiti, owners of the Kids EveryWear semi-annual consignment sale, Beth Pendola and Gail Walker, are once again tapping into an innovative business model to raise relief. Now in its twelfth year of operation, Pendola is encouraged about the sale’s still untapped potential to serve the needs of kids and families in local and now even international communities.

“Everyone benefits,” Pendola asserts. “We started this business to outfit our own children and to supplement our own family incomes. We didn’t see more than a decade ago how much blessing this labor of love would spread. Everyone wins.”

It’s true, shoppers are ecstatic about the quality they find at rock bottom prices. Consignors are thrilled; they can recycle and re-outfit their kids for next to nothing. Hundreds of local moms, dads and grandparents even trade their time by staffing the sale for the mere privilege of early shopping. Is it worth it?

“It’s better than Christmas,” claims Lisa Weaver, who scheduled her family’s Disney trip around the volunteer preview sale last spring.

So how has the excitement begun to seep out of the Triangle and into other countries? “We can’t take much credit,” insists Pendola. “We had a problem. We were buried in leftover clothing and we had not anticipated the situation! I still remember when consignor Catherine Seay suggested we contact Birthchoice about picking up our donations. I felt like she’d tossed me a lifeline.”

First, Birthchoice and Catholic Parish Outreach came to the rescue. Through the years Kids EveryWear has sought out other needs in the community that their ever-increasing supply can meet. The Preemie Closet, UNC Hospital, the clothing ministry of First Baptist Church, With Love from Jesus, classrooms and other local charities have benefitted.

“When our friends approached us timidly about the idea of using the sale as a vehicle to help Mexican orphans, we were absolutely elated!” laughs Pendola who at the time was again up to her eyeballs in clothing donations. These friends, the Schlax family of Pittsboro, were perhaps the first to take notice of the sale’s potential to make a difference internationally. At 15 years of age, oldest daughter Missy signed on as the first “marathon volunteer” with a specific goal in mind: to raise money for missions work. In exchange for her assistance in staffing the consignment event, she was allowed to participate as a seller without being charged commission. “We admired Missy’s initiative and heart for others so much that we wanted to facilitate her earning as much as possible,” says Pendola. After studying what shoppers snapped up first, Missy purchased items at yard sales and thrift stores for resale and earned enough over the years to fund several missions trips to the Rancho 3M orphanage outside of Juarez, Mexico, an area plagued by poverty, crime and drug trade. In 2009, Missy moved to the Ranch to become a housemother at the orphanage and her younger sister Abbey picked up right where Missy left off.

In 2009, Abbey earned more than $4000 through Kids EveryWear to support their family’s mission work at the Ranch. Last fall, the Schlax family was able to assist the kids at the Ranch, in an even more tangible way with the help of Kids EveryWear – they loaded up a trailer piled high with donated clothing and hauled it across the border. Later this year, the entire family plans to relocate to Juarez to open an infant house at the orphanage. Kids EveryWear has agreed to make a large donation of clothing and equipment to get the new baby quarters well outfitted.

Now, inspired by the sale’s resources, another idea has occurred to the owners of Kids EveryWear. “When the earthquake hit Haiti and I saw the tremendous need that loomed over these already impoverished families, I prayed for a way that we might be able to help,” said Pendola.

Her husband felt that unless someone came forward with the means of transportation and distribution, clothing donation to Haiti was an impractical dream. He informed her that he felt monetary gifts would serve Haiti far better. That same day, business partner Gail Walker emailed an idea her husband Charlie had been pondering. They knew that people would pay to shop early. In fact, they had denied many requests over the years. Why not offer a limited number of early shopping passes as a gift with donation to Haiti relief? That way, moms who were too busy to fit a volunteer shift into their schedule could still shop early and know that their contribution was making a difference.

Passes, whi ch will be advertised daily on Craigslist , will be limited daily so as not to diminish the time sacrifices volunteers make to gain first dibs on the bargains. Donations will be funneled through Sovereign Grace Ministries so that 100% of monies will reach those in need. Catholic Parish Outreach food pantry, a division of Catholic Charities of Raleigh has been the primary beneficiary of Kids EveryWear donations for almost 10 years now.

Terry Foley, director, reported that in 2008 they provided approximately 775 tons of groceries to an average of 5862 people per month. “Most of the families that come to us have small children who we help with clothing, and in 2008 we gave clothing to 13,132 children! The Kids EveryWear consignment sale leftovers provide a major portion of the clothing that we give to needy families in our community,” Foley says.

But charitable giving is not the only way Kids EveryWear makes a difference. Sale participants, many who have been loyal to Kids EveryWear since its inception in 1998 benefit as well. Talitha Crawford of Clayton has been participating in the Kids EveryWear sale for more than a decade. Though her kids are now grown, she, like the Schlax girls, purchases to re-sell. Recently she reminisced about her history with Kids EveryWear.

“I think my first (consignor) check was around fifty dollars,” she reported. “Now I can treat my family to vacations at the beach with the money I make at the sales. Believe me, we would not be able to afford a vacation otherwise.”

Talitha also works at the sale, not for the coveted early shopping privileges that attract most moms to donate their time, but to fellowship with friends she’s made there through the years and to stay abreast of current trends in the world of bargain shopping. “Working the sale helps me to know what sells a nd what doesn't,” she claims.

Crawford also reports that thanks to a decade of peddling her wares at Kids EveryWear, she has managed to build an emergency savings account, an added blessing in the current economic climate. The next Kids EveryWear sale is scheduled March 6-15 at Morrisville Outlet Mall located off Interstate 40 at exit 284 near RDU airport. Volunteers and consignors shop first, but anyone is welcome to participate.

Visit www.kidseverywear.com for registration details and shopping times. Entrance to the event which occupies 3 separate storefronts and more than 30,000 square feet is free.