“I started setting up at six o’clock this morning and by 10 o’clock (a.m.) I had sold 50 percent of my stuff,” Bryce Flowers, one of the coordinators for the event, said. “I think it has been a great success. I’ve counted over 200 cars that have stopped and visited us, and I stopped counting at 300 people. I was happy with 300 people. I think that’s fantastic.”
Flowers sat on his porch at 11:30 a.m. as a late spring breeze mixed with the sunshine of a rare rainless Saturday morning.
“We’ve been planning it for about two years,” Flowers said. “We just decided it was time to do something about it.”
Flowers said the purpose of the village-wide yard sale was to bring people together.
“It’s to get to know your neighbors. To get to know our little community. I’m hoping that the neighbors and the whole community will take an interest in this. I’m not originally from here, but I couldn’t wait to get here. I thought everybody was friendly and open and they seem to be.”
One of the New Boston residents who was set up to sell outside his home was New Boston Village Administrator Steve Hamilton.
“It’s a community event that the (Village) Council really put together, along with some other people who came into Council and said it would be a good thing,” Hamilton said. “You can see by the traffic in the town, and you can see by all the people, there is just a lot of people in the village.”
Hamilton said people put out items to sell, and if they had merchandise left over they could donate it or if they put it out with the trash the village will pick it up.
Hamilton said it was also good because in many cases it helped people clean out their garages, basements and houses.
“One thing about it is that it is bringing our community together,” Hamilton said. “I’ve been out talking to a bunch of people, yard sale people, and they are all happy we did this.”
A lot of people were making their way to the Cedar Street Church of Christ in Christian Union activities building.
“We’ve had yard sales over the years to raise money for work teams that we send out,” Gary Heimbach, Pastor of the church, said. “When we found out New Boston was having one, the Mayor told us about it, so we said, ‘we’ll be part of that’.”
Heimbach said the church’s sale would benefit a July work project involving two jobs in New Boston and one in South Webster.
“We’re going to go do work in their houses,” Heimbach said. “It’s really exciting. I’ve met all three homeowners by now, and we’ve got a team preparing for it. We want to build a porch out in South Webster.”
Heimbach talked about the man whose house they are working on in South Webster.
“He had a boarded up window,” Heimbach said. “And we started talking to him, and he started crying, and I said, ‘we’d like to fix your window.’”
Heimbach said the man became very excited when he found out it was all going to be done free to him.
“All of the people working in here have one purpose — we want to give back to our community,” Heimbach said. “We want to do it just to share God’s love.”
Flowers was asked if he plans to see the community yard sale become an annual event.
“That’s what we’re hoping for. This is our first and we’re hoping to have it for the next 30 or 40 years. We’re hoping it will grow. I’m hoping we can get more food vendors and some churches involved in some barbecuing. I’m hoping some restaurants set up and sell hot dogs and hamburgers, chili, whatever they want to bring. And I’m hoping some other businesses get involved. We’d like to see this thing grow to where we would have two or three thousand people coming through here every year.”
FRANK LEWIS may be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 232.
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