Heart BEAT

Dayton Street Sale Has Big Benefits

DAYTON - The ninth annual sidewalk sale on Third Street in Dayton went off without a hitch last Saturday. The sidewalk sale involves all sorts of entities, including churches, non-profit and community organizations like the Columbia County Senior Center and the hospital, regular retail businesses and even residents who want to make some money.

"It started nine years ago to give churches an opportunity to make funds for their organizations," said Ted Paterson, the event's organizer.

Always held the first Saturday in May, the event began in 2003 with about nine or 10 churches participating in the sale, he said, and it was headed up by Grace Episcopal Church. Now, everyone wants a piece of the action. The local library, VFW, hospital auxiliary and residents of Third Street are now participating as well. Also, local businesses run special sales of their own that day.

The city of Dayton closes off Third Street for the event and all of the groups participating pile their goods out to the curb. All leftover items from the sale get loaded into a Goodwill truck to be donated, Paterson said. He said each year the goal is to clean out your closet, sell what you can and box up the rest. The whole sale is cleaned up by 4 p.m.

Visitors come from Milton-Freewater, Ore., Tri Cities, Lewiston and Clarkston to shop the Third Street sale each year, Paterson said.

In the early years, he said organizers tried to get the churches together to donate to one cause, but that was too difficult. Each group gets to decide what to do with the money they earn. Much of the money raised each year through the sale goes toward local civic and community outreach projects, including the food bank, youth programs and senior programs, Paterson said.

And each group that takes part in the sale makes about $600-$700, he added.

"It's been a good sale," Paterson said. "It's a way to help them clean out the closets and generate money for outreach programs."

Janet Bye, a member of the Redeemer Lutheran Church of Dayton, said the church has been participating in the sale since the inaugural year. Most of the proceeds have gone to church remodels and to send church members to a women's faith conference in Spokane.

To collect items for the sale, Bye said the church asks for donations from people who are cleaning out garages and closets.

"It's our biggest money maker," Bye said. "It's the only (fundraiser) we have unless the youth group does something."

The amount the church makes through the sale really varies, Bye said, from about $200 to more than $1,000. And this year all of the money will go toward sending congregation members to the women's conference, which will really bring members closer with God, Bye said.

"It encourages and uplifts you," she said.

Barbara Gibson with the senior center said all of the money made through the sale goes to the Senior Round Table program, which provides seniors with a healthy lunch Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. To collect items to sell, she asks for leftovers from other garage sales and keeps the items until the first Saturday in May rolls around. Other community members simply donate items to the cause.

"Those who can, give what they can," Gibson said. "Dayton is fabulous for giving."

The roundtable not only provides a good meal, but entertainment as well for the seniors in our community, she added. Seniors pay $3 for lunch or as much as they can pay.

"We have more (cant pays) than can (pays)," Gibson said.

Also, the money raised through the sale goes to the center's Meals on Wheels program that serves about 40 people in the community. It is quite expensive to run the programs, Gibson said, but she is determined to keep finding items for the sale each year to keep it going.

"We're trying to keep this place alive," she said. "This belongs to the people."