Service Club Garage Sale -photo by Bridgid Berger

The POC Community Service Club is so proud to have successfully completed another community garage sale. The work involved in such an undertaking is immense. We pick up donations from generous citizens far and wide and store them in the boat barn where we sort, fold and organize them on scheduled work days throughout the year. Thanks to Susie Onishi for her coordination of the storage and countless other club members for hours spent sorting and organizing.

Then, three days before the sale we put up tables and racks and shelves and prepare the community center pavilion for the sale. Thanks to Marie Hawes, 4H members and several others who served as the set-up crew. Two full days before the sale, it is all hands on deck with trucks, trailers, flatbeds and SUV’s and any muscle willing and able to lift, load, unload, unpack, display, stage, price and prepare literally hundreds of boxes, bags, crates, totes and sacks of treasures and gems for the twice-a-year garage sale. Clothes, shoes, books, music, frames, décor, tools, electronics, sports equipment, linens, kitchenware, holiday supplies, mystery marvels and unnamed curiosities are all found in the treasure trove of garage sale donations that find their way to the tables and racks for sale. Thank you Coast Guard Helpers, Club Members, husbands, sons, daughters, family and friends who gave time, muscles and encouragement to our effort, not to mention the husbands and families who went without dinner cooked on time or homework help for the night as volunteers were busy at the pavilion. After hours of work over two full days, Service Club members do not go home and put their feet up! They go home and bake…cakes, pies, cookies, brownies, breads and bars to sell at the Saturday sale.

After a short night, they are back at the pavilion to greet, serve, assist and check out the shoppers and browsers that come to our sale. Thank you Annie DuBois, Brandy Herman, 4H members, club members, family friends and Project Hope guys for your able assistance. At Noon, the same crew produces the bags and the energy to offer the $1 bargain bag sale. As shoppers pick out their treasures and finds, club members and volunteers load cars and trucks, lift furniture and fixtures, and work to make the sale successful. After the 2PM end of sale, those same tired, dirty club members take every leftover shoe, unbought book and remaining treasure and pack them up for donation to charity. Project Hope, a recovery and treatment program who operates a resale store to benefit clients in need take those boxes and put them to use in helping men in women they serve. Thank you Jason and guys from Project Hope for all you do both at the sale and throughout the year. Now those same shelves and tables, racks and totes must go back to the storage to be refilled for the next sale just 6 short months away, trash must be hauled away, floors swept, bathrooms cleaned, the kitchen put right before those tired volunteers can quit. Club members, their husbands and families, those same 4H kids and those generous Coast Guardsmen and women, (especially Glen who came back on his own time to lend a hand) utilize their own personal vehicles to haul and handle the tasks and put the pavilion back to rights, ready for the next event in our community.

Thanks to Robbie and Bob, Thomas and Riley, club members and others who packed and boxed, bundled and hauled, tugged and lugged until it was done. We could never do it without the help of these people. Thanks also to those who shopped and bought and even came back for the Bargain Bag sale. Without you our efforts would be wasted. I could not possibly list each person who worked, but you know who you are and I want to thank you for your service!

So, what do we do with the money made from all this effort you may ask. It is the fuel for the service in POC Service Club. New signs for the Fire Department? Paid. Scholarships for local students? Paid. Pet Potty stations? Volleyball Court? Senior Christmas Lunch? Paid! Paid! Paid! The good done for our community is priceless and makes it all worth the work. The next Garage Sale is in October, so start your spring-cleaning and give us a call. We will take the donation and put it to good use.

And, if you would like to share the fun, consider joining the POC Community Service Club? New members are always welcome. We meet the 1st and 3rd Thursdays at the Community Center at 10:00 AM. We have a couple of items left from the garage sale that remain unidentified assets. Maybe you have the expertise to solve the mystery of the metal doodad we still have no idea about, and we promise to find a spot for you on the team of great people that we get to work with regularly.

So, until next time, be safe, live simply, love openly, forgive generously and remember this quote by the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison who said “Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Come work with us. We can find some overalls your size at the very next garage sale I’m sure.