Wesley Church’s Rummage Sale Reaches Out
Wesley Church’s Rummage Sale Reaches Out
by Barbara Hiura
by Barbara Hiura
For days, boxes and bags of people’s tired, used and abused stuff… clothes, small appliances, ancient sports gear, old tech like keyboards and monitors, dishes, utensils, toys, games, and a lot of whichamicallits and thingamajigs showed up at our Fellowship Hall doors prior to our annual rummage sale taking place on June 7. With all mountain of stuff coming in, the
United Women of Faith annual rummage sale, as usual, was not only a success for its missions work, but a huge hit with the community.
Our trio of leaders Terri Koike, Bev Acuna, and Jeanne Katsuro, braced themselves for the overwhelming avalanche of stuff coming their way all of which needed to be sorted and priced to sell. Good thing they had a good number of volunteers who come out every year to do the piecemeal, time-consuming grunt work required. Yes, it’s three days of long hours of back-breaking manual labor and tedious work, but in the long-run so worthwhile as they all worked to serve God’s people especially the underserved in our community. The need is great and what is offered, those used and tired stuff is a boom for many when money is tight. For a few bucks, the folks in the neighborhood found a bounty of useful items, especially jeans and t-shirts, pots and pans, sets of dishes, shoes and linens. For others, the treasure hunters were not left wanting as Jeanne and her cadre of workers, put together two rooms elegantly laid out of treasures such as jewelry, fashion handbags, Japanese dishes, dolls, and tea sets along with artist labeled fine pottery. These too were sold cheaply and for sure worth a lot more on Ebay.
And the crowds came and throughout the morning and early afternoon, there was a constant line of browsers and purchasers. The treasure rooms had lengthy lines just to get in. It was amazing the uplifting vibe these purchasers brought to our Wesley parking lot.
Yes, the United Women of Faith garnered more than $9,000 in sales, but more importantly, they did God’s work by giving back to the people in need. This outreach ministry is significant and a big deal to our neighborhood. And for the UWF, the money made goes to mission work serving women and children around the world. It goes to disaster relief through UMCOR and supports non-profit organizations like Gum Moon Residence/Mary Elizabeth Inn, Grateful Garments, Brighter Hope for Youth and Children, and the Compassion Ministry which provides food and clothing for the unhoused at St James Park, and gives groceries to Grant Elementary School families and walk-ins from the neighborhood.
Most importantly, the rummage sale process brings people together. The workers are brought into relationship to one another. The community is brought into relationship with our church people. And our village expands 10-fold with volunteers coming from abroad, friends, family, the Buddhist Church along with our own church community. It is an amazing and beautiful spiritually uplifting experience.
There are many people to thank along with our trio of leaders who put their heart, soul, and backs into this truly a passionate labor of love. Thanks go out to John Tanaka, Cynthia Fukuda, Byran Longmire, Carmen Cook, Jim and Ryan Tengan, Jim Mar, Dan Chafey, Brian Hamilton, Tom and Karen Maeda, and a special shout out to our kitchen staff who fed workers for four days led by Judy Yasutake and Judie Kanemoto. Thanks to all who came each day to sort and price. our security people, our cashiers serving both the treasure rooms and the main rummage sale grounds. Hats off to Ron Tanizawa and DeeDee Azuma who stayed cloistered all during the rummage sale and counted the proceeds.
United Women of Faith annual rummage sale, as usual, was not only a success for its missions work, but a huge hit with the community.
Our trio of leaders Terri Koike, Bev Acuna, and Jeanne Katsuro, braced themselves for the overwhelming avalanche of stuff coming their way all of which needed to be sorted and priced to sell. Good thing they had a good number of volunteers who come out every year to do the piecemeal, time-consuming grunt work required. Yes, it’s three days of long hours of back-breaking manual labor and tedious work, but in the long-run so worthwhile as they all worked to serve God’s people especially the underserved in our community. The need is great and what is offered, those used and tired stuff is a boom for many when money is tight. For a few bucks, the folks in the neighborhood found a bounty of useful items, especially jeans and t-shirts, pots and pans, sets of dishes, shoes and linens. For others, the treasure hunters were not left wanting as Jeanne and her cadre of workers, put together two rooms elegantly laid out of treasures such as jewelry, fashion handbags, Japanese dishes, dolls, and tea sets along with artist labeled fine pottery. These too were sold cheaply and for sure worth a lot more on Ebay.
And the crowds came and throughout the morning and early afternoon, there was a constant line of browsers and purchasers. The treasure rooms had lengthy lines just to get in. It was amazing the uplifting vibe these purchasers brought to our Wesley parking lot.
Yes, the United Women of Faith garnered more than $9,000 in sales, but more importantly, they did God’s work by giving back to the people in need. This outreach ministry is significant and a big deal to our neighborhood. And for the UWF, the money made goes to mission work serving women and children around the world. It goes to disaster relief through UMCOR and supports non-profit organizations like Gum Moon Residence/Mary Elizabeth Inn, Grateful Garments, Brighter Hope for Youth and Children, and the Compassion Ministry which provides food and clothing for the unhoused at St James Park, and gives groceries to Grant Elementary School families and walk-ins from the neighborhood.
Most importantly, the rummage sale process brings people together. The workers are brought into relationship to one another. The community is brought into relationship with our church people. And our village expands 10-fold with volunteers coming from abroad, friends, family, the Buddhist Church along with our own church community. It is an amazing and beautiful spiritually uplifting experience.
There are many people to thank along with our trio of leaders who put their heart, soul, and backs into this truly a passionate labor of love. Thanks go out to John Tanaka, Cynthia Fukuda, Byran Longmire, Carmen Cook, Jim and Ryan Tengan, Jim Mar, Dan Chafey, Brian Hamilton, Tom and Karen Maeda, and a special shout out to our kitchen staff who fed workers for four days led by Judy Yasutake and Judie Kanemoto. Thanks to all who came each day to sort and price. our security people, our cashiers serving both the treasure rooms and the main rummage sale grounds. Hats off to Ron Tanizawa and DeeDee Azuma who stayed cloistered all during the rummage sale and counted the proceeds.
A huge shout out goes out to Terri Koike (above) and Jeanne Katsuro (left) and Bev Acuna, below for the months of planning the rummage sale and all the hoours organizing and putting it into action the many days before collecting rummage sale items to seeing it throught the day of to the end. THANK YOU!!!
Mary Horio (left) assisted the main cashier, Carmen Cook and Ken Bui. Rev. John ensured that no unauthroized person got their hands on our money.
A huge task is at hand in putting out all the items for sale shown here with John Ng (above) and Ryan Miyahara and all those shoes (below)
Morning shift itemizers and assistants prepared sales slips for all purchases were clockwise: Toshiko Bliven, April Kawahara, Dale Sasaki, and Grace Wada had assistance from Kathy Iyama, Mary Sasaki, Michiko Collins, Marcia Yasukawa and Hiroko Yamahata.
At takes a special crew setting up and running the two treasure rooms directed by Jeanne Katsuro (not shown) Volunteers came from other community groups, from our church and friends. Some of the volunteers in the Treasure's room were, from left: Bobbie Ueunten, Angela Ren, Jill Aragaki, Sandy Jones, Ann Cowels, Akiko Buchanan, Ann Sifflet, Lynn Pindar and Ida Gamba.
The tresaure room workers lean the Square Two program for taking credit cards.
Indeed, it takes a village to run the UWF Rummage Sale.
Posted in Newsletter 2025-06-26