Web site aims to raise funds for schools

PORTLAND – A new Web site that provides free advertising space for unwanted goods whose sellers agree to donate part of their proceeds to help the Falmouth schools may prompt other communities to take up the idea.

The site – www.classroomclassifieds.com – has been up for only a few weeks, so it’s too early to tell how much it will raise for the Falmouth Education Association, said the site’s creator, Carolyn Gillis.

The association uses donations to support arts, academics and athletics in the Falmouth schools.

Gillis, who describes herself as a “yard-sale kind of person,” said she came up with the idea for the Web site after helping with auctions and other fund-raising activities.

“I saw how hard it is to make money for the schools,” said Gillis, a Falmouth parent who was on the startup board of the Falmouth Education Foundation.

She thought that if community members were provided with a way to sell goods they didn’t want, they might give some of the proceeds to the schools.

About six years ago, she started a print version of today’s online ads that was carried in school newsletters. Gillis says each of three editions raised about $1,000.

The Web-based concept could spread to other towns and cities. Gillis said Westbrook schools have signed a year’s contract for a Classroom Classifieds site, and Freeport schools are considering the possibility.

Classroom Classifieds works on the honor system. Those posting ads agree to donate anything from 1 percent (or less) to 100 percent of the sale to the education foundation.

It is requested that sellers have a connection to Falmouth, as teachers and other school staff or as town residents and their extended families and friends, Gillis said. Buyers can live outside the community.

Items for sale on the Falmouth site include a 1992 Land Rover Range Rover with 84,000 miles. The asking price is $6,900, and the owner has pledged 1 percent of the proceeds to the education foundation.

Also on the site is a week at a camp on Little Sebago Lake in Gray, with 5 percent of the $850 rental going to the schools. Ten percent of the asking price for handcrafted maple and cherry chairs, $700 and $550 respectively, is earmarked for school support.