Poor weather conditions couldn’t stop Loudon County Habitat for Humanity and the Church Crafters group from putting on the annual community garage sale and boutique Saturday at the Community Church at Tellico Village.
“It’s been a great sale,” Kathy Blevins, garage sale co-chairwoman with the Church Crafters, said. “Yesterday, we took donations in, and it was pouring the rain. But the weather didn’t seem to stop people. They came and brought their wares, and as you can see, we’ve had more than an abundance of items upstairs and downstairs. Today’s turnout has been really well.”
Sammie Shanks, volunteer coordinator for Habitat, said the volunteer work on Friday while collecting items was hugely important to the effort.
“Our volunteers did a great job yesterday in the rain as donations were arriving at the church and as our volunteers went out to pick up the large items,” she said. “They did an amazing job.”
Habitat Executive Director Shauna Oden called Friday’s volunteer work a “yeoman’s effort.”
“They were soaked from head to toe, had ponchos and all that,” she said.
The garage sale just broke the $14,000 mark with fundraising a year ago, which Blevins said was the group’s highest intake in sales. Volunteers hoped to top that number this year, but ended up with $12,162.
“The rain was a problem I think,” Oden said. “We had a bit of slow start this morning because of the rain.”
Even so, the traffic was pretty steady throughout the day on Saturday, and Oden said she believed the total was the second highest ever for the event.
“The flow has been very, very good this year,” Blevins said. “Sometimes other sales, there’s so many people in — of course, we can only let so many people in at one time. We haven’t had to monitor the crowd. It’s just been a steady flow. So it’s been easy to come in and shop and checking out.”
Shanks said variety, volume and quality of merchandise is what keeps drawing shoppers to the sale year after year.
That was the case for Jenni Payne, who scheduled a trip from West Virginia to fall on the week of the sale.
“I have some family that live around close and had family from different places come in,” Payne said. “We heard about it, so we came — and actually I was here like three times in one day. I absolutely loved it. So I set the calendar. ... I told my husband, mark the calendar. We’ll be there this weekend.”
Payne said she bypassed other sales taking place on Saturday and put her focus solely on the one taking place at the Community Church.
“There’s yard sales all the way up the road, and I was like, no this is my mission,” she said. “You never know what you’re going to find. Of course, that’s the way with yard sales or anything. ... I made me a list for things I was looking for and needed. I just love it so much.”
Blevins said news of the event has spread over the years, and holding it at the same time year to year has let the community know what to expect.
“For one thing, it’s very well advertised,” she said. “This is a sale that has been going on now for a number of years. I know I started working with this group in 2003, and it was going on prior to that.”
The event is advertised in surrounding counties in addition to Loudon, which Oden said has also helped bring in buyers from all over the area.
Money raised from Saturday will be shared between the two organization, and both Blevins and Oden said the fundraiser was an important one not only financially but to spread the word about each organization.
“We share the work, and it’s one time in the year where our community really comes together, and these two organizations merge and become one,” Blevins said. “... After expenses are paid, then the proceeds are divided right down the middle.”
