Archive: Around Town

Today and tomorrow is a major shopping event in Lansing, namely the Lansing United Methodist Church Rummage Sale.  Scores of volunteers have been working all week to sort and price all kinds of items donated to the sale.  Prices on most items are below $5, and on Saturday they are even lower.  But the sale isn't just about the merchandise.  It's also about the volunteers who make it happen.

"What's new and exciting is the people -- the people coming back and new people coming," says co-chair Ed LaVigne.  "The enthusiasm is always new and exciting.  Each year you have a different group and they bring different personalities.  It's very exciting to be able to be involved with something bigger than yourself and see the results that happen when a lot of people work in the same direction for a short period of time."

LaVigne is chairing the sale with Shelly Stark.  The twice yearly sale is a major fundraiser for the church, each one typically raising around $10,000, but it's not just about the money.  Participants get different things out of working on the sale.  There is a social aspect, and a spiritual aspect, a charitable aspect...

"If you talk to ten different people they'll give you ten different answers, and they're all correct," LaVigne says.  "Some of it is a fundraiser.  We don't deny that.  It started as a fundraiser many years ago, but now for me personally it's more than that.  If it were just about the money I wouldn't be doing it."

Those volunteers are served meals that have become a big draw for rummage workers.  LaVigne says the kitchen is almost like a fundraiser within a fundraiser with its own volunteers cooking, serving, and coordinating donated dishes for what can amount to over 40 people a day.  Coffee and breakfast is served in the morning, and volunteers look forward to certain dishes from sale to sale.


That's important because literally thousands of items are donated throughout the week leading up to the sale, and each has to be sorted, tagged, priced, and displayed.  Almost any item that is in good condition is accepted, even if they are a bit unusual.  LaVigne says it's a tremendous opportunity for families with children, because they grow out of clothes so quickly.  The Rummage sale gives parents a place to find new clothes inexpensively, as well as a place to donate the old.

"Each year you always have a different theme," LaVigne says.  "Each year you have things like the 12 foot rabbit cage that we didn't think was going to sell.  It was dropped off Thursday night and we had three people arguing over it the next day.  We had the cast iron stove that weighed a ton that we thought wouldn't go, and it went the next day.  These things absolutely fascinate me as far as what I think has value and what is of value to other people."

And the number of donated items has grown quite a bit over the years.  The rummage sale outgrew the church building long ago.  LaVigne came up with the idea of using tents, but volunteers had to solve the challenge of erecting tents on blacktop, where you can't use stakes.  Today the tents equate to five extra rooms of merchandise.  And if the sale grows more, there is more space for more tents.

On Friday items are sold at their tag prices.  On Saturday from 8am until 1pm many of the items go for a dollar-a-bag.  Shoppers can stuff a bag with however much they can fit into it, with some exceptions like electronics and antiques, and pay only a dollar.


In addition to the money raised by the sale, other groups also raise funds.  The Women of Faith mission sells hotdogs to raise funds for its mission.  The youth ministry has held fundraisers at the rummage sale in the past.

LaVigne says bad weather doesn't significantly impact the success of the sale, though he prays for good weather every year.  But more sales don't always equate to the weather.  The draw is the bargains for everyone, regardless of income or savings.

"With all the turmoil in the world and all the economic conditions with inflation going through the roof -- everyone is being effected by this," LaVigne says.  "Everyone is feeling it.  You reach out to people and show them they are not abandoned.  That is the most terrifying feeling in the world for people to feel there is no one caring for them and that they're on their own.  We reach everybody.  This is the exciting thing about it.  We reach people from all areas.  It is a time when people reach out to each other and say we care."

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