Mixing Good Deed And Fun

Q: What do a ricer and a lamp have in common?

A: A good craftsman and his sense of humour, it seems.

I was made aware today that Emmaüs had a website where all their collection centers sell some of the items they think of interest, among the plethora of all those they get freely from people willing to get rid of things they no longer have the use of.

Emmaüs is a nationwide solidarity movement that was born 73 years ago by the abbot Pierre to help the poorest people, by not only providing them with a warm meal but also the means to get back what they dearly needed: a sense of usefulness in society and a way out of the streets. A stepping stone to work.

I consider Emmaüs to be - at least in France - the first and the model of all resale shops which motto remains the same: give your useless item for for free, we will use it for a good cause.

Years ago I used to go to the local Emmaüs center on a regular basis, where I bought whatever the young man I was without much money could afford to furnish my apartment. Each time I felt like I was entering Ali Baba's cave :-)

Anyway, this DIY of a lamp made with a ricer was too much of a temptation for me to resist. And - though it does not reflect my interior's style - it indulges my liking for the steampunk style. Must be the captain Nemo in me.

Looking forward to receiving it!

Oh, what's even cooler is that through their website I can donate whatever item I am willing to get rid of. I only have to send a few pictures of it, they publish it with their estimate price on their "marketplace", and once it's purchased I just get to deposit it to the nearest pick-up station. And the fund goes to the insertion project that I've previously chosen among the severals they run. "Once a Scout, always a Scout", it would seem :-p