Madison Children's Museum Benefit 2016

Today I went to the Madison's Children's Museum Benefit in Madison!

Every year, American Girl donates its returned items to the Madison Children's Museum in Madison.
The museum has a big sale of these dolls once a year, in the summer.

It's kind of a big thing that everyone wants to go to, and I was excited to get to go!



My ticket was for 9:15, and there was a delay of 25 minutes. My ticket group got to enter at 9:40.

My pictures are really bad, but hopefully it will give you an idea of what it is like!

There was lots to see outside the warehouse!

There was a silent auction of retired or rare items.  This was in a tent outside the warehouse.

Here are some of the items for auction:

Also in tents outside the warehouse were lots of vendors with handmade American Girl clothes and furniture for sale.

I meant to come back to one or two of those after I went through the warehouse, but I was so relieved to be out of the crush that I forgot.

The lines to enter were so crowded and noisy! I was grateful for the tent that kept the sun off our faces.

Volunteers were circling the tent selling huge bags to carry doll boxes in and bottles of water.

I will say that the whole set up was great for the hard of hearing. It was so noisy, I couldn't have heard anything. There were signs so we could easily see where to line up to enter.
When I was ready to check out, the cutest little girl, held up a paddle with a number of a check out line and led me to it. That was great.

Lots of dolls!

Lots of books!

More dolls! I was not immediately able to put the lids on the boxes of the dolls I chose, nor was I able to do a comprehensive check of the dolls. I checked their sleep eyes and their hair quickly.

The ladies at check out helped me put the lids on the boxes and to fit everything in my bags.

Lots of crowds!

I think they hadn't run out of anything yet when I was there. They had lots of dolls, even the blonde ones which I hear are the most popular. I didn't see Caroline, so they might have sold out of her.

I had trouble spotting the Santa dress that I wanted, but once I had grabbed the dolls I was buying, I circled back around and found it.

When I left, there were live ballet performances by local kids, It was cute.  There was also a bake sale I hadn't spotted on my way in.

So who and what did I get?

I am not ready to share the full list yet, but I picked up a #58 for randomtraci of Isn't She Dovely.
Her name is Ruby from New Orleans and she is already working on becoming a world traveler!

The benefit sale was hugely overwhelming and I wouldn't exactly describe it as fun, but I am glad that I got to go!

Want to read more? Nethilia posted about her experience at the sale here at American Girl Outsider.

Here is a link to my blog post on the MCM sale in 2023- the very last MCM sale ever.