The Community School's 23rd annual Garage Sale last weekend attracted about 1,500 shoppers and raised about $106,000. The money will help the school provide professional development for teachers and pay for speakers and other special events.
The sale was one of several fundraising events that the school's parents' association puts on each year. Headmaster Andy Jones-Wilkins said that even though the sale makes only a fairly small contribution to the school's overall budget of $6.1 million, it allows it to do things it couldn't otherwise do.
"It also helps us keep tuition under control," he said.
Event co-chairwoman Wendy Crosby said the sale exceeded the organizers' goal of raising $100,000.
"It's a community-wide event," Crosby said. "We get donations from the community. We get volunteers from the community, and we get shoppers from the community, as well as all over the southern part of the state."
Crosby said about 85 percent of the items donated were sold. She said the remaining items were donated to the Idaho Youth Ranch, which provides services to delinquent and abused children.
The event was organized by Crosby, co-chairwoman Kristin Anderson and Maria Gerhardt, who is in charge of fundraising for the parents' association. A team of volunteers began collecting items for the sale in June.
"The volunteer hours that the parents put into this barn sale are absolutely incredible," Jones-Wilkins said.