Joanna Schmergel (left) and Erica Gonella, MCC treasurer and director of annual giving, in a room full of dolls to be sold by the organization (click images to enlarge).
What began last year as an eBay auction of donated vintage dolls has turned into a multipronged nonprofit effort that has netted thousands of dollars for METCO and provided summer camp scholarships for 34 kids.
Joanne Schmergel’s Cerulean Way home is slowly being taken over by dolls, antiques and other items she’s collecting and selling to benefit the METCO Coordinating Committee. What was once an office become, in her words, “a full-blown doll shop, and our formal dining room is a living estate sale.”
When the MCC first began supporting the summer camp program, they dedicated a majority of funds from its annual mailing campaign—but this drastically reduced the funds available during the school year to pay for late METCO buses, MCC president Pilar Doughty said. When Schmergel approached the group with her doll sales idea, “we thought ‘we don’t have anything to lose.’ Little did we imagine that she’d be able to raise enough money to make doll sales the new cornerstone of our Boston-based student summer camp funding in 2017-18.”
A donated painting for sale, which Schmergel jokingly titles “Why Did We Buy a Farm Share?”
Last year, doll sales netted $7,800, or 45 percent of the MCC’s total annual budget. This allowed the group offer full scholarships to 48 Boston-based, METCO-enrolled Lincoln School children to the four-week Lincoln Parks & Recreation summer camp, allowing them to attend at minimal cost to them (though only 34 kids wound up participating).
Schmergel, who is in charge of MCC’s fundraising and special projects, collected more donated inventory during the summer, including 30 American Girl dolls (now on sale in individual baskets for $59.99 each) and 200 collectible Barbie dolls donated by Lincoln resident Erica Mason that will likely net $3,500–$4,500 on eBay. The MCC also plans to sell antique and vintage dolls at the Boston Toy Show and is marketing more items on LincolnTalk, including four Chinese mud clay figures and various estate-sale items.
Chinese figurines for sale by the MCC.
The next goal is raising money through various methods fund Boston-based middle-schoolers who would like to attend Lincoln Summer Day Camp. Because the middle camp tuition is costlier and the transportation logistics are tricky, the MCC hasn’t been able to advertise the camp scholarship program widely to middle schoolers.
“The MCC had seen steady, gradual decline in both volunteerism and monetary donations over the past five years, and this seriously impacted the number and frequency of programs that we have been able to offer,” Doughty said. “When Joanna came to the team with renewed energy and a ‘can-do and will-do’ attitude, she provided a breath of fresh air. Knowing that we’re on stable financial ground for the year (because of her fundraiser) allows our leadership team to step out of panic mode and plan more effectively for the future.”