If the recent spring-like weather hasn’t been enough to make you want to open your windows and clean out your house, here’s another reason to motivate you:  Ashburn residents Christine LeTourneau and Jane Hofmann are organizing a major fundraiser to benefit Ryan Diviney.  

Diviney is an Ashburn resident who, while attending college at West Virginia University in 2009, was beaten severely in an attack that left him with a brain injury. He has been in a coma since. 

“I have been so touched by Ryan’s story, I just want to help in any way that I can,” said Hofmann.

After reading on the Rally for Ryan blog that Ryan had been accepted into a cutting-edge, yet costly, brain injury treatment program at the International Brain Research Foundation, Hofmann became motivated to organize a fundraiser. 

“The Divineys had written two $25,000 checks and were tapped out,” Hofmann said. “They needed help from friends and family, so it was time to get creative.”

Although she didn’t know the family personally, she was inspired to help them raise the funds necessary to admit Ryan into the program. The question was how to go about doing it.

The solution struck her when she least expected it.

“I was watching the show ‘Enough Already’ on the Oprah Winfrey Network and got motivated to clean the house," Hofmann explained. "I produced a big pile of items that I needed to donate. Looking at the pile, the idea hit me: people have so much stuff, let’s organize a community-wide yard sale.”

After discussing it with her friend Christine LeTourneau, the two came up with a plan.

“The more that we talked, the bigger the event became,” LeTourneau said.

Declutter for the Divineys will be held April 9, the same day as the Ashburn Village Community Yard Sale. Not only will it be a mega yard sale, it will be a festival of sort with live music, food, raffles and an array of entertainment for the whole family. 

The icing on the cake is that the man who provided the secondary inspiration for the event, the host of "Enough Already," Peter Walsh, will be in attendance! (Diviney, of course, is the primary inspiration.)

"When we contacted the show, we never expected to hear back,” LeTourneau said. “We are so excited that Peter Walsh is going to be part of our event."

Thanks to Long & Foster’s donation of storage space, Hofmann and LeTourneau are able to accept donations for the yard sale now through April 7.  They are accepting clothes, furniture, toys and household goods in good condition. They are also accepting merchandise or gift cards from local businesses as raffle prizes.

If you would like to help, now is a great time to start on that Spring cleaning. Donations can be made seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 43490 Yukon Drive, Suite 105, in Ashburn. Visit the Declutter for the Divineys Facebook page.

Patch will post more details about the location of the yard sale as they become available.