Dateline: June 15, 2006

44 garage sales planned for Trash to Treasures

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Bargain shoppers will be in for a treat during the first “Trash to Treasures” citywide garage sale to be held in Clarendon and nearby communities this Saturday, June 17.

Forty-four individual garage sales are scheduled to be held. A complete description of each sale is printed in this week’s Big E Classifieds here, and a map of the sales is on the last page of this week’s Enterprise or available online by buying a single digital copy for $1 by clicking here.

The Clarendon Enterprise and A Fine Feathered Nest, Inc., have teamed up to sponsor “Trash To Treasures,” which was the idea of Ashlee Estlack and Chriss Clifford.

The organizers had hoped to get 15 sales the first year, but were happy to have more than 20 by last Tuesday. That number doubled by last Friday’s deadline as sales steadily lined up one after the other.

“This is truly amazing for a first time event,” Enterprise publisher Roger Estlack said. “Claude has been having its citywide garage sale for several years, and we understand they had 43 sales this year. We had hoped to catch them in a year or two but never expected to do so the first year.”

The sale was intended to just be in the City of Clarendon, but demand led the Enterprise and A Fine Feathered Nest to agree to expand the event to other locations in Donley County to include sales on the south side of Greenbelt Lake, in rural areas, and in Hedley and Howardwick.

“We have some local merchants participating also,” Estlack said. “We hope to attract several people from out of town to shop at the sales and to patronize our local businesses. We’re also happy to see some non-profit organizations taking advantage of the opportunity that ‘Trash to Treasures’ presents.”

“Trash to Treasures” is being promoted in several area newspapers and with airtime on KEFH and KLSR radio.

Clifford sees widespread participation in “Trash To Treasures” as a way to encourage people to think about something before they toss it out. In fact, her company has its own line of products that are “Too Good To Be Threw.”

“I’m interested in the whole ecology of the idea and encouraging recycling of old items,” Clifford said. “I also want to see people find artful ways to put objects to new uses.”

Future “Trash To Treasurers” will coincide with A Fine Feathered Nest’s annual Too Good To Be Threw sale, and Clifford also has long-range plans for classes on giving lamps, furniture, and other things new lives.