Items begin stacking up on tables at Harriet Hall in Haines. (Abbey Collins)
One man’s trash is another’s treasure, right? That’s particularly true for the Hospice of Haines, which generates a significant part of its budget through an annual rummage sale.
The day before the yearly two-day rummage sale, Haines’ Harriet Hall is bustling with volunteers as tables begin to fill with items looking for a second — or third, or fourth — home.
Nancy Schnabel is president of the Hospice of Haines board.
“It is our biggest fundraiser,” says Schnabel. “It makes up about a fourth of our yearly budget.”
Volunteers are working pretty much non-stop. Pricing, sorting, even directing traffic as a line of cars stacks up outside the hall.
“The amount of people involved for a two-day sale is mind boggling,” says Schnabel. “They are the people that know rummage and love rummage and understand rummage. They somehow take a whole lot of stuff and make a whole lot of money off of it.”
One of those volunteers is Mardell Gunn. She’s been involved since the sale’s beginnings more than 20 years ago.
She’s busy, but takes a few minutes to talk while putting price stickers on a box full of donated items.
“Twenty five years ago when hospice was first starting we needed to make money,” says Gunn. “The first year we made $300 and thought ‘wow.’ No, I think we made $800. Anyway not very much. Twenty years later, here we are. We make over $10,000 every year.”
The big, open room is full of clothes, books, kitchen tools, art.
Outside, Tim McDonough is helping organize appliances, furniture…
Cindy Buxton is heading up the organization of the sale this year.
“I’m the head delegator,” says Buxton. “So I guess that’s my new title is ‘all things rummage.’”
The rummage sale is a well established event in the community. Still, not everything sells. Buxton says they try to do whatever they can to limit what gets thrown in the landfill.
“Last year we were able to send a bunch off to Goodwills around the country,” says Buxton. “I have a recycle team on Sunday afternoon who comes before we do cleanup and tries to find homes for as much as possible. And then things are free or by donation Sunday afternoon. So huge amounts disappear.”
What doesn’t, the volunteers are able to toss for free.
Gunn says turning what could be trash into useful items in a new home is one of the reasons to keep the sale alive.
“One of my motivations for keeping it going all these years is the fact that its moving stuff around the community,” says Gunn. “Besides it being a fundraiser for hospice, it’s hugely important to me that this stuff doesn’t get put in the landfill, but actually gets moved around.”
From weed-wackers to typewriters to couches, a lot gets moved around each year.
