United Women of Faith A Neighborhood Hit With Rummage Sale
By Barbara Hiura
What is going on here? There’s a line stretching around the block waiting to get in…I mean really? Waiting to get into the church? What gives? No one should have to wait to enter GOD”S HOUSE! But, there you have it! Witness this…the 5th St. Parking lot with tables heavily ladened with cloths, stacks of dishes, glassware, mugs, electronics, purses, shoes, suits, books, CDs, jewelry, sports equipment. And to one side in the end classroom, a hidden Treasure’s room! Why it’s the United Women of Faith’s annual one-of a kind bargain rummage sale! And the neighborhood folks are lined up waiting to get in and sample all the bargains to be had right here.
Indeed, we sell cheap…50 cents for an item of clothing and boy do our clients love buying jeans, jackets, pants and shirts some of which are practically brand new for 50 cents a piece. Everything ranges from 25 cents to maybe a couple of bucks. I saw an almost new large back packs going for $1. But one of the best deals I saw was a 26” bike with a couple of flat tires going for $25. Wow!
One outreach attraction were vouchers we handed out prior to our sale day, Rummage Sale, And yippee, they were actually used by several low income needy people in our community. Each voucher was worth $5 in rummage sale dollars. They were passed out to a select number at Grant Elementary School, The Bill Wilson Center, and Casa de Clara. Ashley Walker (overseer) at Casa de Clara reported, “The whole house (7 adults & 6 children) was able to attend the rummage sale and found their time here a HUGE success… and found great deals!!” All were very thankful for the vouchers. While many of us don’t know how much our rummage sale touches the lives of the people who attend, these stories touch our hearts and loved this kind of feedback. We ARE making difference.
As you can see, this was an amazing day, a God day of service to our community in out reach and our church village came out to work it. There were teams of church folk doing everything from putting out items for sale, cashiering, money counters, security, lunch crew, and service workers monitoring the sales tables. The church community came out days before to receive people’s generous donations and price them for sale. Now those were very long days from 9 in the morning to 7 at night.
Hats off to our chair, Terri Koike, who worked her tail off this year making our overall Rummage sale a success. Same can be said too for her assistant, Bev Acuna. Accolades to Jeanne Katsuro, chair of the Treasure’s room and her co-chair Ann Sifflet. They assessed our more treasured items…jewelry, Imari dishes, Silver platters, crystal, name-brand purses, Japanese dolls, etc…for our Treasures room. Items there sold for a bit more, but still a steal. These chairs and their workers were all amazing and dedicated. It took the strength and sweat of our whole church body to pull this off as we needed all generations from the exuberance of youth to the sage wisdom of our older folks. A huge Shout-Out and THANK YOU to the “village” and all who participated. A special thank you goes out to our Boy Scouts. This was all made possible because of YOU!
The rummage sale made about $10,000 with cash and checks still coming in and our special Treasures room did much to augment that total. Katsuro was pleased…”Yahoo,” she exclaimed. “We exceeded the sales from the Rummage Sale of 2023 which was about $7,000.” Although expenses still have to be paid, this may be the best we’ve ever had!.
There you have it, a boom for United Women of Faith and all that was raised helps their mission to serve nationally and internationally causes which uplift women and children around the world. We’ve been so blessed.
What is going on here? There’s a line stretching around the block waiting to get in…I mean really? Waiting to get into the church? What gives? No one should have to wait to enter GOD”S HOUSE! But, there you have it! Witness this…the 5th St. Parking lot with tables heavily ladened with cloths, stacks of dishes, glassware, mugs, electronics, purses, shoes, suits, books, CDs, jewelry, sports equipment. And to one side in the end classroom, a hidden Treasure’s room! Why it’s the United Women of Faith’s annual one-of a kind bargain rummage sale! And the neighborhood folks are lined up waiting to get in and sample all the bargains to be had right here.
Indeed, we sell cheap…50 cents for an item of clothing and boy do our clients love buying jeans, jackets, pants and shirts some of which are practically brand new for 50 cents a piece. Everything ranges from 25 cents to maybe a couple of bucks. I saw an almost new large back packs going for $1. But one of the best deals I saw was a 26” bike with a couple of flat tires going for $25. Wow!
One outreach attraction were vouchers we handed out prior to our sale day, Rummage Sale, And yippee, they were actually used by several low income needy people in our community. Each voucher was worth $5 in rummage sale dollars. They were passed out to a select number at Grant Elementary School, The Bill Wilson Center, and Casa de Clara. Ashley Walker (overseer) at Casa de Clara reported, “The whole house (7 adults & 6 children) was able to attend the rummage sale and found their time here a HUGE success… and found great deals!!” All were very thankful for the vouchers. While many of us don’t know how much our rummage sale touches the lives of the people who attend, these stories touch our hearts and loved this kind of feedback. We ARE making difference.
As you can see, this was an amazing day, a God day of service to our community in out reach and our church village came out to work it. There were teams of church folk doing everything from putting out items for sale, cashiering, money counters, security, lunch crew, and service workers monitoring the sales tables. The church community came out days before to receive people’s generous donations and price them for sale. Now those were very long days from 9 in the morning to 7 at night.
Hats off to our chair, Terri Koike, who worked her tail off this year making our overall Rummage sale a success. Same can be said too for her assistant, Bev Acuna. Accolades to Jeanne Katsuro, chair of the Treasure’s room and her co-chair Ann Sifflet. They assessed our more treasured items…jewelry, Imari dishes, Silver platters, crystal, name-brand purses, Japanese dolls, etc…for our Treasures room. Items there sold for a bit more, but still a steal. These chairs and their workers were all amazing and dedicated. It took the strength and sweat of our whole church body to pull this off as we needed all generations from the exuberance of youth to the sage wisdom of our older folks. A huge Shout-Out and THANK YOU to the “village” and all who participated. A special thank you goes out to our Boy Scouts. This was all made possible because of YOU!
The rummage sale made about $10,000 with cash and checks still coming in and our special Treasures room did much to augment that total. Katsuro was pleased…”Yahoo,” she exclaimed. “We exceeded the sales from the Rummage Sale of 2023 which was about $7,000.” Although expenses still have to be paid, this may be the best we’ve ever had!.
There you have it, a boom for United Women of Faith and all that was raised helps their mission to serve nationally and internationally causes which uplift women and children around the world. We’ve been so blessed.
Hours and hours were spent collecting, sorting and pricing. Bev Acuna, co chair on the left, dug-in doing this for days.
Ann Sifflet, co-chair of the Treasure's Room, spent her time sorting and pricing our more precious items.
Terri Koike (co-chair) and Jeanne Katsuro plotted and planned to the finest detail, how to manage this massive undertaking.
Feeding the workers: Judie Kanemoto, Amanda Ware and her daughter, and Jeanne Katsuro.
Jim Mar tested electronics to ensure all we received worked and was ready to be sold.
Day of...Getting all the cloths out to the tables in the parking lot.
Christine Ozawa and Marecella Rensi putting "stuff" out on thee tables.
Dan Chafey focused his attention on the appliance table area.
The neighborhood came and they bought and bought and bought.
Kell's mom, Janice Inouye-Atencio, drove all the way up from Hollister to join our village and was she every perfect as an itemizer. She took no guff from anyone about pricing.
The Treasure's Room attracted many for that one-of-a-kind special purchase.
Then, there's clean up after the sale.
Canopies got put away with the help Jeffery Roloff and Byran Longmire and here they show off the carrier that one of our talented Boy Scouts designed and created. Very nifty!
The hauling truck came to pick up our leftovers for resale and our 5th St. Parking lot was once again pristine, as if nothing had happened at all.
Posted in Newsletter 2024-06-27