In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, we will NOT be holding our annual rummage sale in 2020.
Many local non-profits benefit from this sale, and we are sad that we cannot support them through the proceeds and extra items this year. (read some of last year's thank you notes in the green box) Here is a list of these wonderful organizations, in case you would like to learn more about how you can help them.
Abria Northside www.abria.org 612-522-6589
Birthright www.birthright.org/minneapolis 612-338-2353
Cradle of Hope www.cradleofhope.org 651-636-0637
Home Free www.missionsinc.org 763-559-1883
IOCP www.iocp.org (Welcome Baby Project) 763-489-7500
Life Fund www.archspm.org (Office of Marriage, Family and Life) 651-291-4515
Phoebe Ministries (no website; contact Sue Schneider at schneider3710@msn.com or 763-478-9769)
Southwest Options for Women www.southwestoptionsforwomen.org 952-938-4496
History of the Rummage Sale
Recycling our Excess and Serving the Less Fortunate at our Annual Rummage Sale
Way back in 1983, the Holy Name Quilters Group puzzled over how they could raise the funds to buy quilting materials to keep their fingers busy making warm quilts for the many groups that counted on them. They settled on a rummage sale and deposited their first proceeds, $731.56, on April 29. In those days, that was just enough to keep them in fabric and batting for the coming year. A success! Led by head quilter, Pat Faue, they decided to make the sale an annual event and eventually began making even more money than the quilters needed for their ministry. Assisted by many members of the Faue family and friends of the quilters, the group was able to grow the sale to an event that allowed them to generously share thousands of dollars with local groups that serve families in our community.
By 2007, the whole operation had outgrown the Quilters and became a project of the entire Holy Name of Jesus Community. A committee of parishioners plans the event and organizes more than a hundred volunteers to carry off this sale every June. This is not just an opportunity for Holy Namers to get trendy and “simplify our lives” by cleaning out our closets and garages, though that’s great, too. Rummage sale veterans look forward to the camaraderie that emerges among the community of workers that sort through the donated goods, looking for the occasional gem among the mundane worn t-shirts, dusty books and dented kettles. There has to be a treasure in there somewhere!
One of the key elements of the mission of the rummage sale is creating an opportunity for inexpensive shopping for people who need to stretch their budget to the max. Families with children find affordable baby equipment, school clothes and slightly used toys. Penniless young people find the furnishings and dishes to set up their first apartments and a bicycle to get them around campus. The elderly poor spend hours sifting through piles of stuff for little treasures that will brighten their days. And all of us look for that perfect item to enhance our wardrobes and a book to enlighten our minds. It’s a blessing all around.
The committee also sends vouchers to IOCP and local pregnancy care centers inviting selected clients to shop for free at the end of the sale. Other charitable organizations come to collect items: the NPH orphanage; Trinity Missions, which provides coats for ex-convicts; Home Free shelter for victims of domestic violence, Southside Family Nurturing Center for disadvantaged families of preschoolers and many others. Holy Name School gets playground equipment and used uniforms. And then there is the couple who picks up hundreds of pairs of used shoes to ship to the shoeless masses in Africa…Bless them! These gifts-in-kind are just a small extra benefit but mean a lot to the organizations who receive them.
The rummage sale, which now nets well over $10,000, still funds the excellent work of the Quilters, who so faithfully sew and tie quilts for the homeless and babies and abuse victims. The rest of the funds go to the Interfaith Outreach Welcome Baby Project, Cradle of Hope, the Life Fund, Northside Life Care, Southwest Options for Women, Birthright of Minneapolis, Phoebe Ministries, Home Free, Southside Family Nurturing Center and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, all organizations that support families in our community. The good that comes from selling all of our excess stuff is enormous!
updated May 2017