[TAC] Fw: Lutheran Services in America to Be 'Trading Graces' on eBay

[Kurt Meyers]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <NEWS at ELCA.ORG>
To: <ELCANEWS at LISTSERV.ELCA.ORG>
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 10:33 AM
Subject: Lutheran Services in America to Be 'Trading Graces' on eBay


> ELCA NEWS SERVICE
> 
> February 6, 2006  
> 
> Lutheran Services in America to Be 'Trading Graces' on eBay
> 06-017-FI
> 
>     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutheran Services in America (LSA) will
> host "Trading Graces," its first annual online auction, from noon
> Feb. 26 to noon March 8 on eBay to benefit Lutheran social
> ministry organizations across the United States and Caribbean.
>     "Congregations and all sorts of people can partner with
> Lutheran social ministry organizations on this and spread the
> word, donate, volunteer and buy," said Jill Schumann, LSA
> president.  "We're inviting everybody into this project, and
> we're partnering with those 100 million-plus existing eBay users
> to reuse, recycle and tell the LSA story," she said.
>     LSA is an alliance of nearly 300 social ministry
> organizations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
> and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  eBay is a platform on
> the World Wide Web where millions of items are traded each day.
>     Lutheran health and human service organizations in thousands
> of communities provide care -- ranging from health care to
> disaster response, from services for children and families to
> care for the elderly, from adoption to advocacy -- to 6 million
> people annually, and employ a quarter of a million staff and
> volunteers.
>     One purpose of Trading Graces is to raise public awareness,
> Schumann said.  "For a long time we've heard that Lutheran social
> ministry is one of the best kept secrets.  We've been working
> hard to liberate that secret and make sure people know more about
> Lutheran social ministry," she said.
>     Schumann noted that Girl Scout Cookies (registered trademark)
> and the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life raise awareness
> for their organizations while raising funds for their programs.
> She said she hopes Trading Graces will give LSA similar notoriety.
>     The 10-day auction has been preceded by a year of planning,
> Schumann said.  The social ministry organizations went "to their
> constituents, their employees, their donors, congregations, their
> business partners, and asked for items and services to donate,"
> she said.
>     Pre-auction descriptions and photographs of items scheduled
> for sale were listed in the "Trading Graces Preview Gallery" on
> http://www.lutheranservices.org/ -- the LSA Web site.  An LSA
> news release listed several items that will be up for auction,
> including a classic 1948 DeSoto car, vacations, sports
> memorabilia and a collection of more than one million sports
> cards.
>     John B. Carter, LSA's Trading Graces online auction event
> manager, said the auction will look familiar to eBay regulars.
> "The seller, a Lutheran health and human services nonprofit
> organization, places items up for sale to the highest bidder," he
> said.
>     "Buying on eBay can be a unique shopping experience, and
> bidders need to register with eBay in order to buy items online.
> Registering with eBay requires providing eBay with some very
> basic contact information which eBay keeps private on eBay's
> secure servers," Carter said.  eBay confirms a completed
> registration by e-mail.
>     While the auction is in progress, potential bidders can
> access Trading Graces online through the LSA Preview Gallery, by
> logging on to eBay at http://www.ebay.com or by searching for
> items at http://www.missionfish.org/ by a specific nonprofit
> organization's name.
>     "Bidders can watch items over the course of the event, and
> the highest bidder will be notified by eBay that they have won an
> item," Carter said.
>     "Afterward, the buyer and seller have an opportunity to
> converse through e-mail to make final arrangements for shipping,"
> Carter said.  "Following shipment, both the buyer and seller rate
> each other on how the transaction was handled via mechanisms set
> up in the eBay system," he said.
>     MissionFish is providing technical support for Trading
> Graces.  MissionFish has conducted online auctions since 2000 and
> teamed up with eBay in 2003 as the exclusive charity solution
> provider for eBay Giving Works and as a service of the Points of
> Light Foundation.
>     Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a nonprofit financial
> services organization based in Minneapolis, helped fund Trading
> Graces.
> -- -- --
>     Details on the Trading Graces online auction are at
> http://www.lutheranservices.org/TradingGraces.asp on the LSA Web
> site.
>     Information about MissionFish is at
> http://www.missionfish.org/ on the Web.
>     Details about registering and buying on eBay are at
> http://www.ebay.com on the Web.  Information about eBay is at
> http://pages.ebay.com/aboutebay.html on the Web.
> 
> For information contact:
> John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news at elca.org
> http://www.elca.org/news
> ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog 
>