A popular lakes area event each fall is the Neighborhood Super Sale. Started by the East Isles Green Team in 2012, the sale is designed to help neighbors easily and efficiently reuse and recycle their great stuff.
This year’s 15th annual Neighborhood Super Sale will be held Saturday, Sept. 19, rain or shine. It’s not too late to participate. Registration closes Friday, Sept. 11.
After the sale, unsold items may be picked up at the curb and go to nonprofits, which have included the Disabled American Veterans and Arc’s Value Village Thrift Stores and Donation Centers.
This year, for the first time, sale organizers plan to poll sellers afterward to get an idea of just how much was sold or donated, keeping a good portion of it out of landfills or the incinerator.
Another first this year, organized by East Bde Maka Ska coordinator Vasiliki Papanikolopoulos, is a spot for the community to dispose of electronics. Free Geek will be popping up at the St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church parking lot from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to accept computers and peripherals, phones, tablets, audiovisual and stereo equipment and more.
Over the years, the sale has expanded to include six area neighborhoods: East Isles, Lowry Hill, Kenwood, Cedar-Isles-Dean, East Bde Maka Ska and the Wedge.
Maps of all sale locations and a list of key items at each sale can be found on the East Isles website and the websites of the other participating neighborhoods the week before the sale. Last year’s 140 sales set a record.
The sale is organized by a committee of volunteers from each neighborhood with the help of several neighborhood coordinators. Committee members Elyse Colpitts and Jacquelynn Brown of Lowry Hill served homebaked cookies at their sale. Ms. Brown’s favorite memory from the sale was “hosting a super sale with Elyse and meeting so many awesome people.”
Shelly Itman of East Isles, who organized the sale in the early years, is a relentless promoter. Every year Itman keeps track of the informal competition between Humboldt Avenue and Irving Avenue as to which street has the most sales.
She has also organized many of the side events on her block, such as live jazz and food giveaways, that make the sale so fun.
“It really is a community event!”
Committee member Kristin Dolphin of Cedar-Isles-Dean captured the spirit of the day with her reflection: “One of my favorite things about the Neighborhood Super Sale is how it brings people together. Friends and family come from near and far to shop our sale.”
Dolphin continued, “Last year, my inlaws even came to help staff the register and set up clothing racks. My mother-in-law brought some of her own goodies to add to my sale, and I’ve even had someone from a nearby apartment bring over items to sell because she didn’t have a space of her own. My daughter once scored an American Girl bunk bed, and I found a super-fun striped vanity chair that I absolutely love. It’s those little moments, neighbors helping neighbors, friends and family showing up, and everyone chatting in the driveways, that make the Super Sale feel like so much more than a garage sale. It really is a community event!”
Ellen van Iwaarden writes for the Hill & Lake Press. She lives in East Isles.
