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Cogan House Community Church, 3782 Cogan House Road, Trout Run, will hold its annual rummage sale from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, however this year looks to be the biggest looks to be their biggest in the sale's seven year history, according to Joyce Way, whose husband, Cleveland Way, is the pastor the church.
"It's really a good fundraiser, and it's an excellent way to bring our community together," Joyce said.
"We get oodles and oodles of stuff, and it's always new every year because. We don't bring things back from last year. We start from scratch every year, and people love it," she said.
All items left over from the sale are shared with St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Quiggleville, who then hold their own rummage sale.
"They come over and get some stuff to do their rummage sale, which helps buy children's
winter coats through Daniel's Closet, and then after that, American Rescue Workers come and take what's left. So it's trifold in helping people, so we really love that," Joyce said.
For the first four years of the sale, proceeds were used to help keep a food pantry previously operated by the church fully stocked.
Following the closure of the pantry, the patrons of which now have access to The New Love Center's mobile pantry, funds brought in by the sale were used to help elderly community members cover home heating costs.
Following a devastating flood in August of last year, the church used proceeds from the sale to help cover repair costs.
"We're a small congregation, and we lost two boilers, one in the social hall, one in the church, and we lost hot water heaters," Joyce explained, adding that the amount needed for the repairs was around $45,000.
"It was just not something we could even comprehend, but we trusted God and we put it out there that this is what's happening," she said.
"We had people sending checks. We had people who grew up in this church when they were kids, who now lived in Washington or Oregon, sending financial gifts, and so much money came pouring in that on the day we ended the fundraising for the boiler, with what we got at the rummage sale and everything that people contributed, we ended up with $54,000," Joyce said.
$2,200 of those funds came from the rummage sale alone, which, at that time, used a donation-based payment system.
"The Cogan House community is small, but very close knit. They see what we're trying to do, and they come to support it, and that's why somebody will hand you $100 for a toaster," she added.
Joyce said that this year will mark the largest sale yet.
"A lady in our community sold her four-bedroom house, bought a fifth wheel and decided she was moving away and took only what she could fit in that fifth wheel, which isn't much because they come completely furnished, and she left the rest to the church for the rummage sale," she said, adding that the sale will span the church's large social hall and basement.
When you walk in, you have to look all on the floor, at 25 eight-foot tables, up on the wall. It's just climbing the ceiling, but it's a good thing because we're helping people," Joyce said.
"It was remarkable, and we were very blessed," Joyce, who begins planning for the sale every May, said.
"We have a group of probably 50 or 60 people, and I tell them, 'when you spring clean, give us your junk and let us have your treasures,'" she said.
The only items the church does not accept for the sale are clothing due to the massive volumes that can quickly inundate them.
"I just got another donation this afternoon, and it's really neat how the community looks forward to it. But they also contribute to it; they help build it up, and they help it become what it's going to be," Joyce said.
Joyce added that if someone is unable to make it to the sale on Saturday, they can contact the church to set up a time to stop by on the prior Friday.
"Last night, we had a couple from Liberty who just started a rental in a trailer up in Liberty, and they had nothing for a kitchen, and I said to my neighbor, 'tell them to come here and see if they can find something,' and they left with five boxes of $80-worth of stuff because we have so much," she said.
"That couple who's very young and just getting started, would have paid probably $600 at Walmart for all the stuff they got, so to me, we touched somebody's life," she said.
"It might seem insignificant, but they walked away smiling because they could furnish their kitchen and get dishes and whatnot, and they didn't have to spend their last paycheck on that," Joyce said.
Joyce said that a final decision on what to use this year's proceeds on hasn't been determined yet, but that she feels the church has a responsibility to make sure their neighbors are taken care of.
"We have probably six or seven older couples in our community that have to choose between heat and medicine, or heat and food," she said.
"When we had the food pantry, we had an elderly couple come in one time, they could hardly hold each other up, and we gave them a ton of food and the gentleman was in tears," Joyce said
"He said, 'my wife and I have been eating cat food because we have to have our medicine, and we couldn't do both. And when we found out about your food pantry, we just felt like it was a blessing,'" she said.
"I said, 'whether we're here or not, do not ever eat cat food. You knock on my door, and the church will buy you food, even if at some point the food pantry is not here. Or I will give you food from my cupboard,'" she recalled.
More recently, members of the church banded together to provide clothing and school supplies for a local family that was in need.
"That's what we're here for. We're not here to hoard that money and have these gigantic accounts. We are here to serve and we are here to help better other people's lives. If we aren't doing that, shame on us as a church and as people," Joyce said.