Mega Sale scheduled at St. Mary's

Thursday, May 31, 2012

With school behind them and St. Mary's gym empty, parents and grandparents are gathering this week to begin working on the annual Mega-Sale.

The annual benefit is set for Friday and Saturday, June 8-9, in Kennedy Gym starting at 6:30 a.m. All proceeds go to St. Mary's building fund.

"Normally, we can get this sale pulled together in a week, but this year we received a welcome surprise when a church member called with the enormous donation of his parents' estate," Margaret Kerr said in a news release. "We were blown away by the size and generosity of this gift. It includes a lifetime of tools, furniture, kitchen items, linens, all sorts of collectibles and more than we can began to list. The family easily had enough to host their own auction, but decided to make a gift to the church and school instead. We are so grateful. Truly this sale will have something for everyone."

Lori Guilfoyle, a longtime Mega Sale volunteer, was quick to point out that this week was needed just to organize this donation so all the other contributions could be added next week. "Next week promises more furniture, appliances and toys. We just have to get things organized so we know where to put everything as it comes in," she said.

In the last six years, the sale has developed a reputation for being enormous, offering a huge variety of goods, as well as great merchandise at great prices. People seem to know not to donate junk. "We want the sale to have the reputation of offering quality," said volunteer George Kutey. "The sale has always had a two-fold purpose -- raising money for St. Mary's School and also helping our community by offering quality goods at an affordable price."

St. Mary's gym will be open next week starting Monday evening from 5 to 7:30 to accept donations. This year's sale will not include clothes or computer equipment. Volunteers are welcome to help sort and price items. Both day and night shifts are available. Anyone interested in helping should contact Margaret Kerr.

"Volunteering is a lot of fun. We spend our days trying on scary Halloween masks, and debating on things like how much a vintage indoor electric hotdog roaster should cost. It's a pretty laid back time with lots of families and people of all ages working together. Kids play with garage sale items while parents and grandparents work. It's a wonderful intergenerational experience. What makes this sale so special is the community that pulls it together each year. It's unbelievable how almost everyone contributes something, whether it is their time, special talents, or the things they bring to sell. It's awesome," Kerr said.