It all started when a club member was tidying up their dining room credenza. They found a bunch of things they didn’t need anymore. Offspring were asked if they wanted the goods, but they weren’t too keen. This raised the question of what to do with all that stuff? Donating to the Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale was a possibility, but then an idea formed, maybe the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club could use a fundraiser? The idea of a yard sale was suggested at the annual meeting last December, and everyone was on board.
In the spring, Claudia Benton, Janie Hillyer, and Patricia Erwin formed a small group to put together the event. They picked a date, made some initial plans, and started asking lawn bowling members to donate items to help us get everything ready. Thus began an epic effort on their part to make this event work.
It looked like there were a few hurdles to overcome, but we managed to pull it off! First off, would members be willing to donate items for sale? The answer was a resounding yes. Donations were generous and plentiful, completely filling the clubhouse by the week before the sale. Second, could all the items in the clubhouse be moved outdoors and arranged for display before the yard sale started? Again, the answer was yes. A small group of volunteers met at 7 AM and took on the almost Herculean task of setting things up for the 9 AM start of the sale. Third, would people come to buy things? The news was good. Efforts to publicize the sale – flyers, posters, social media posts – were effective. We estimate that we had 250 visitors attend the yard sale, some of whom participated in free lawn bowling lessons.
Hurdle number four, would folks buy our yard sale goods? And indeed, our visitors bought an amazing number of donated items—stuff you thought would sell, stuff you could not imagine selling, and everything in between. This led to the final challenge of the exercise: how do we clean up at the end of the yard sale so that the PIMD Playdowns Tournament, scheduled for the next morning, would run smoothly? Again, the miracle on Acton Street continued as many helping hands sorted the unsold items into categories for prompt dispersal and neatly routed the leftovers to alternate ends. Within an hour and a half, the clubhouse was clean.
None of this could have happened without the dedicated volunteer effort of BLBC members. The club thanks everyone who donated items. We had a great turnout with 35 members (a full third of our membership) volunteering help with pre-sale, day of sale, and cleanup efforts.
In the end, the great yard sale of 2026 was a grand success. Members got an opportunity to declutter their homes, items found a continued useful life in new hands, and the club raised a tidy sum of money. Our thanks to all who helped!
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