Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Friday, August 30, 2013
(WORTHINGTON) - Saturday is yard sale day in Worthington.
The Greene County Daily World reports for one day a year, this quiet, peaceful town becomes a mecca for shoppers hunting for trash and treasures at sales set up all over town.
Sponsored by the Worthington Lions Club, the date of the annual sale is easy to remember. It's always on the calendar for the Saturday before Labor Day.
Started in 1992 by Jean Ingersoll and Lessalee Pickard, who have both since passed away, it is one of the oldest, largest and most successful community yard sale events in the state.
The day starts early at 6:30 a.m. when the Worthington Lions Club starts serving breakfast in the Town Hall of the Municipal Building, located on State Road 67 downtown on the Triangle. The menu includes pancakes and sausage, biscuits and gravy, milk, juice and coffee for $6 for adults or $4 for children, serving until 10 a.m.
Lions Club member Delores Calvert says it's not hard to find a sale -- there will be one open on just about every street in town and in many areas, there will be one open in the garage or yard of every house on the block.
The locations of sales change every year. Although a few residents set up a sale every year, others have a sale every few years. Since out-of-town friends and family members frequently come to set up alongside those having a sale, any one location may be a multiple-family sale or have several small sales set up on one property.
Maps will be available to help shoppers find their way around town. The map will list most, but not all, of the sale locations as well as the locations of food vendors and the convenience stations.
For a couple of days prior to sale day, the map may be picked up in advance at various businesses in Worthington and at Town Hall in the Municipal Building, Worthington-Jefferson Township Public Library, Vest's QuikMart convenience store, Dollar Generaland the Country Market grocery store. Maps will also be available at Town Hall during the pancake breakfast on sale day.
In addition to standard yard sale fare, numerous food vendors will be set up around town -- in years past they have featured hamburgers, hot dogs, pulled pork sandwiches, ribeyes, fish, lemon shake-ups, ice cream, homemade apple dumplings, cinnamon rolls and other treats.
Provo Septic Service, a Worthington business, participates every year and will have numerous porta-potties set up around town. Some of these will be handicap-accessible -- locations will be included on the map.
To help with clean-up as the sale winds down, sellers will be able to take their leftover clothing items to a barn on the Connie Thatcher property west of town on Terre Haute Road where volunteers will sort items to deliver to other organizations to distribute to those in need.
To pay for advertising, maps and other costs of staging the event including porta-potties, the Lions Club asks each seller to make a donation. Throughout the day, volunteers will make the rounds to each sale and request the donation.
Worthington's yard sale day is a rain or shine event. So far, since it began over 20 years ago, yard sale day has never been rained out. There's been a couple of mornings with showers, but as soon as the sky cleared, the sales opened up as usual.
Thousands of visitors are expected to visit Worthington this weekend.
Some will drive from sale to sale and park along the street -- others will arrive with golf carts, ATVs or bicycles to get around, and many will park and walk from sale to sale while pushing strollers and pulling wagons.
Besides the sales in town, visitors will find sales open along the highways and county roads in outlying areas.
Although Saturday is the official day for the sales -- many are open only on Saturday, early shoppers will find plenty of sales open on Friday through the day and evening hours.
1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com
© Ad-Venture Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.