By Valarie Schwartz
For the drivers behind me on Saturday mornings, I need a bumper sticker that reads: Brakes for Yard Sales. There’s nothing like finding a treasure among another’s junk to provide a lift from the doldrums.
But this Saturday and Sunday brings a sale with no true junk, only great deals on exciting items, plus the opportunity to help make a difference for people in our community who suffer far worse than doldrums — those living with the affects of mental illness.
This is the sixth year that the Vintage Faire Upmarket Tag Sale offers shopping while donating, and clearly the event has paid off for the Mental Health Association (MHA) in Orange County. Last year, the sale provided $15,000 to support its programs.
This year holds another opportunity for shoppers to make a difference.
The venue each year has been a vacant store. This year it’s being held in the former Avalon Medical Building (next to the fire station on Hamilton Road, off Raleigh Road/N.C. 54 across from Glen Lennox Shopping Center). The building, along with The University Inn and the former site of Aurora Restaurant, will be razed in coming weeks as construction begins on East 54 (a multi-use complex with condominiums, office space, shopping, restaurants and a new hotel).
All fixtures, including cabinets, sinks and doors in the former doctor’s offices are also available.
“The front doors have already been sold,†said Anne Cordosa, the MHA board member heading up this year’s sale. “East West Partners gets credit toward a LEEDS certification for fixtures that are sold rather than ending up in the landfill.â€
Of course, the draw for most will be the fabulous items that people in this well-heeled-and-traveled community have graciously donated.
Board members have turned each office in the building into a showroom with a theme. The former waiting room holds much of the furniture, including a comfy red couch, an antique German carved mahogany claw-footed settee with two matching chairs and a handsome pine entertainment center.
You’ll find office furnishings, including leather portfolios and old school desks; the music room offers a Yamaha guitar, a Roland digital piano and a hi-fi straight out of a baby boomer’s childhood; there are children’s toys; all manner of kitchen items; and this year, for the first time, there are clothes. Besides a designer room (jackets, suits, shoes and bags), there is a room lined with laden clothes racks,