Kingsday Fundraiser 2025

In the Netherlands there is a yearly celebration for the Kings birthday on the 27th of April. The Dutch like to celebrate this day in what is possibly the most Dutch way ever: start the day by going to a Rommelmarkt (jumble sale or directly translated: junkmarket), scour the place for the best deals, haggle down some items from 1 euro to 50 cents, go home feeling accomplished with your work and then after a little rest go into town to get locked on beer while singing along to live music all across town.

Because of this beautiful tradition many Dutch kids, including myself, grow up setting out the couple of toys and teddy's they are were willing to part with and making a couple of euro themselves. Often times your parents let you run off and spend the money, resulting in you coming home with more than you brought, but for you there is nothing better than the feeling of being included in the grown ups activities and getting to earn and spend your own money!

Although I enjoyed it as a child, I never saw much use for going to the jumble sale as a grown up. We declutter regularly and I try my hardest not to let too much stuff come back in (hard to do living with a knick-knack lover). However it did dawn on me that as a club we could certainly make some money out of this tradition. In 2023 we set up our stall for the first time, and man, there were lessons to be learned. We parked way too far away and didn't have anything to transport the boxes and bags so ended up doing one million trips with heavy and awkward boxes and bags. We went way too late so we were rushed setting up, we didn't how to price things and didn't bring enough food and drinks. We made money sure, and also got some emotional trauma for free!

Alas, we suffered, we learned and we percevered. As a result, our second year went much smoother. We went earlier, parked closer, had a trolley to bring stuff from the car to our spot and we had other clubmembers there to help out and have fun with. Another year done, another few lessons learned.

This year was our smoothest yet. No stress, no rushing, loads of donations and a bag full of drinks and snacks. We set up nice and early and were ready for the buyers to start showing. It turned out to be a cold morning so it did take a while for things to get underway, but eventually they came. We had an enormous amount of stuff which was all donated by amazing teammembers (special shoutout to Kristena and Luize!), family members (thank you Floor and Jet!) and friends (Monique you're my hero!). Sales went great and with the sun out everyone was in a great mood.

We ended up making a whopping 360 euro from sales on the day! An amazing step up from last years 333 euro. We also didn't sell everything so we are hoping to sell some left over bits still and possibly make it up to 400 euro this year! What a great amount to raise for our club!

I already have plans to streamline things next year so keep us in mind when you are decluttering and who knows, maybe next year we will break 400 euro on the day!

Siep