Community School
sale draws thousands
Hundreds wait in
line in the
cold, early morning
By PETER
BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
Things were
fairly quiet at the barn at the Sage Willow Campus of the Community School
at about 7:30 Saturday morning.
The only
ones around were the volunteers and a few hard-core shoppers waiting in
the cold for the opening of the Community School Garage Sale 2001.
Sponsored by the Community School Parents’ Association, the huge event
has become an autumn ritual for many in the valley and elsewhere.
Jodi
Meunier, the sixth-grade teacher for the Community School, was one of the
early morning volunteers, working the women’s boutique entrance with
some of her pupils.
Meunier
said things would get crazy as the opening time of 8:30 a.m. drew near.
She was
right.
At 7:30
a.m., each of the four entrances into the horse barn had about 15 people
waiting in line, shivering.
By 8:30
a.m., opening time, there were hundreds of people chomping at the bit—between
400 and 600 people. It must have been a sobering sight to the volunteers
who opened the doors.
By 9 a.m.,
there was no parking left on campus, and people began to park off campus.
One of the
early shoppers, Lori Williams of Ketchum, said she had been in line since
7:40 a.m. A five-year veteran of the garage sale, she said she was totally
focused on shopping and was looking for children’s clothes, toys, gifts
and "the unexpected."
Tamara
Boyle, from Rigby, was up at 5 a.m. with her Pocatello friends Mary Jones
and Laura Doty to be in line at 7:30 a.m. They had come up to the Wood
River Valley on Friday and camped out so they could arrive early.
Jones, who
has been coming to the sale for the last three years, said she had heard
about it from a friend at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory. She passed the word onto Boyle and Doty.
She said
she was reluctant to tell others about the sale because that would be like
"telling them where your favorite huckleberry spot is."
Norka and
Edward Albarran were in line for their third year in a row at 7:45 a.m.
with their sons Eddy and Eli. The boys were interested in toys, especially
a Nintendo. Their parents were more interested in winter coats, ski coats
and tools.
Caren
Hosack of Jerome was roused from sleep by her friend from Twin Falls,
Nadine Brown, at 5 a.m. to make it to the starting line by 8.
"She
convinced me I had to go, and she got my backside up," Hosack said.
"This is my first time and Nadine’s second."
It was Tom
Bezdeka’s second time at the sale, but the seventh or eighth time for
his wife, Carol. The Hailey couple had been in line since 7:55 a.m.
He said he
was looking for computer items, small appliances and "who knows what.
Anything that catches my eye."
Carol
Bezdeka said she still remembers the $325 Saks Fifth Avenue coat she got
one year for $15. This year she was looking for a Sonicare toothbrush.
Jamie
Marks-Loyd of the Parents’ Association said about 3,000 people passed
through the barn on Saturday and Sunday, about the same number as last
year.
She said
the association also made about the same amount of money as last year.
While
Marks-Loyd would not say how much that was, the Mountain Express reported
the association raised about $90,000 last year.
Community
School public relations liaison Katie Raffetto said the money goes to the
school fund and the teachers’ wish list, but this year, $10,000 also
went to benefit victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the East
Coast.
Raffetto
said the $10,000 would be split between three benefits—the Widows’ and
Children’s Fund of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of New York
City, the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association’s Widows’
and Children’s Fund and the United Way September 11 Fund.
In addition
to the $10,000 donation, proceeds from the fifth-, sixth- and 12th-graders’
food booths will also go to the New York benefits.
Items that
were leftover from the sale will be donated to different groups, including
the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley, the Idaho Youth Ranch, Coats
for Kids and the Women’s Resource Center.