It’s been a few weeks since your Montlake Community Club hosted the outrageously successful 2nd annual All Montlake Yard Sale. What a glorious day it turned out to be for both shoppers and neighborhood vendors! Even the weather was on our side–full sunshine and 70 degree temperatures. Sadly, the weather has gone south since then, but we DO have the memories of that perfect fall day in Montlake. From E. Shelby to E. Galer and from Lake Washington Blvd to 16th Avenue E, the neighborhood was alive with shoppers and neighbors catching up with each other.
Over 60 vendors put up their bright yellow MCC yard sale signs. That’s twice as many as last year! They hauled out their goods, set up their tables, poked those signs into the yards and got down to business–lots of business. We saw neighbors joining together in 3’s & 4’s to share the work, lure in buyers, and hawk their wares. The minor traffic jams from shoppers cruising the streets for bargains and rubber-necking to catch a glimpse of the yard treasures were reminiscent of the old football Saturdays when Montlake was a parking lot for fans going to the games. And how about the Montlake Boulevard Market! Their great reader board sign and welcome to shoppers and yard hosts alike get them a gold star thank you.
What we like best–“We” being your Montlake Community Club Board–is that we could feel a joyful sense of community that day: neighbors working together; people chatting with their neighbors; old-timers and newcomers saying howdy and exchanging names; then later, the generous filling of the Big Blue Truck for a worthy cause. And, it doesn’t hurt that contributions to the MCC are trickling in from satisfied happy yard sale hosts who are showing their gratitude for the hard-working MCC committee who did the planning, organizing and marketing of the event.
Success breeds success, so Neighbors, Let’s Do It Again next year!
Save your “do not needs” and “do not use items.” And hope for sunshine. We’ll meet again next year for the 3rd Annual All Montlake Yard Sale.
Jean Leed says
Thanks for all your work in setting this up. I thought you were going to distribute an evaluation form for those of us who put things out for sale, but I haven’t yet received it. So I’ll pass along one thought before I forget it.
Given that there were over 60 vendors, it occurred to me that we might want to consider next year having the sale on Sat. and Sun., and offering vendors the chance to participate on either or both days. In a sense, we were competing against each other, because 60 was too many stops to make in one day. Furthermore, those of us who were selling our own things didn’t have a minute to see who else was selling things. Also, several shoppers who apparently just learned about the sale on Sat. morning asked if it was happening also on Sunday. If you do add Sunday, I would suggest that you start at 11 a.m. or so, for those (few) of us who do go to church.