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Kids to Show Entrepreneurial Spirit at Kew Gardens Flea Market

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | September 13, 2013 7:44am
 Children will donate to charity during a flea market in Kew Gardens this Sunday.
Kids for Kids Flea Market in Kew Gardens
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QUEENS — Children as young as 4 will play the role of entrepreneur by selling toys, games, books and clothes they no longer use during the annual Kids for Kids Flea Market in Kew Gardens this Sunday, an event that also raises money for charity, organizers said.

The kids will pay a $30 fee for their table and the money will go to “a family oriented charity" that helps homeless or abused kids and mothers, said Jennifer Giardina, a Kew Gardens parent, who has organized the event since 2006.

In the past, kids donated money to the Coalition for the Homeless and the Salvation Army, Giardina said. This year, they will support the River Fund, a Richmond Hill-based organization helping people living in poverty.

“The kids are actually doing something that they think is meaningful,” Giardina said. “I also want the children in the community to feel empowered no matter how old they are.”

The little vendors are between 4 and 13 years old, Giardina said, and their parents act as their assistants during the event.

Giardina said she came up with the idea a couple of years ago when her daughter, Maya, 11, started talking about brand name clothing items.

She said she wanted Maya and other kids to “appreciate and value the things that they have and to realize and acknowledge that there are children who are less fortunate than they are.”

The flea market, she said, “teaches them a little bit of commerce and a little bit of giving back."

There will be other attractions at the flea market for the kids who will come to shop, Giardina said, including face painting, story telling, raffles and a concert showcasing local children playing guitar.

The kids will also work on an art project and their drawings will later be combined into collages that will be displayed at Odradeks Coffee House on Austin Street and at the Kew Gardens Post Office.

Kew Gardens Kids for Kids Flea Market will take place on Sunday, Sept. 15, (rain date Sept. 29, 2013), from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kew Gardens Cinemas Park (Austin Street & Lefferts Boulevard.).