Staff Writer
CARIBOU — It was paradise for bargain hunters on Saturday, May 16 when the Caribou Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted the annual City Wide Yard Sale.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Paul Hanson and Matt Theriaut pitched it to raise money for their troops during the City Wide Yard Sale on May 16.
Drawing shoppers from as far as Massachusetts, many community members either made a couple of bucks selling unneeded items or obtained a couple of treasures they were looking for, wanted, or didn’t know they wanted until they saw it.
Around noon, Lydia Kieffer, Gabby Gorden, and Ginger Kieffer had been selling items at their yard sale for about four hours.
“We’ve been out here since about 8 a.m, and we’ve been pretty busy,” said Lydia Kieffer. “We’ve sold quite a bit of stuff.”
Though the girls admitted that they pretty much got roped into tending the yard sale, they’d made around $50 at noontime.
Just before 1 p.m, April Kouhoupet, Jackie Morrow, William Ward and Leann Ward were re-grouping around a map of the City Wide Yard Sale planning their next move.
Morrow and Kouhoupet had been shopping since about 9 a.m, while the Wards didn’t start until about 10 a.m.
“I’ve been going [to the City Wide Yard Sale] for the past three or four years,” said Kouhoupet
The Wards have been to the City Wide Yard Sale before, being raised in the area, but they live down in Bangor now.
“[The City Wide Yard Sale] actually helped attract us [back home] a little bit,” Leann said, though clarifying that the main reasoning for their trip north was to visit with family. “We have a lot of family up here.”
Like many who attended the event, the Wards didn’t walk away empty handed; “We found this little portable scrabble board thing; everything’s inset so that the pieces fit in the holes, and it was only five dollars,” Leann said.
“We got battle ship for a dollar; that was our best buy,” said Morrow, regarding the purchases of Kouhoupet and herself. “At Walmart, it costs $15.50; It’s a deal.”
“We’ve only spent $6.50 so far,” said Kouhoupet.
“People are looking for a deal,” said Vaughn Keaton, troop leader and president of Friends of Scouting. Keaton spent the day managing a sale and concession stand to raise money for Friends of Scouting and for the Boy Scout troop.
“The sale itself was put on by the Friend of Scouting, proceeds from the sale will go toward the creating of the Boy Scout Hall,” he explained. “The Boy Scouts themselves, our troop, has put up a concession stand here, to sell to the public; those funds are going to the Boy Scouts so we can have funds to go to the national jamboree next year.
This was the first City Wide Yard Sale for the troop.
“We had a slow start this morning, but it became more steady around 9 to 9:30,” Keaton said. “ We’ve had people come in and look for specific things, and either we had it or we didn’t.”
Items that weren’t sold by the Boy Scouts were donated to Catholic Charities.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Participating in the Maine Military Authority MMA City Wide Yard Sale were Rowena Forbes, treasurer of the MMA general fund committee; Cheri Ouellette, Secretary of the MMA general fund committee; Henry Staples, vice president of MMA general fund committee; Brian Violette, MMA mechanic; Merle Dahlgren, MMA inspector and Troy Cote, MMA auto body technician. Matt Kuhn, president of the MMA General Fund Committee was unable to attend the event.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Gabby Gorence, Ginger Kieffer, and Lydia Kieffer spent May 16 overseeing their yard sale, which was one of many contributing to the Caribou City Wide Yard Sale, which is an annual event held by the Caribou Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
