‘Not your wife’s garage sale’
Among the volunteers helping out Saturday afternoon were Kate Joenks, Drew Joenks, Levi Hanson, Gordie Hanson and Ross Campbell. Staff photo by Karen M. Jorgensen
It was dubbed the “Not your wife’s garage sale” and aimed at men who wanted to clean out the garage or “man cave” and also help a local non-profit. Owatonna’s Sons of the American Legion, with help from American Legion Post 77 and the Legion Auxiliary, sponsored the garage sale last Saturday at the American Legion Post.
As the event wound down on Saturday afternoon the organizers called it a success, although the total amount of money raised for Oak Hill had not yet been determined.
The idea started with the Sons of the American Legion, said Ross Campbell, who as a veteran and the son of a veteran is a member of both groups. A discussion at the Sons of the American Legion meeting about helping members with spring cleaning and also benefitting a local group “steamrolled” into the garage sale idea, Campbell said.
Campbell said he works at Mohs Contracting in Owatonna and Jolayne Mohs is active with Oak Hill, a group started to get a collaborative space designed to house non-profit human service agencies and also to house Rachel’s Light, a non-profit that has provided short-term housing for women and children facing homelessness. The new facility, located in the former Owatonna Mayo Clinic building on South Street, is being remodeled to accommodate the organizations and Rachel’s Light.
Mohs Contracting is doing the work on the building, he said. Phase I has been completed, Campbell said, and the non-profit organizations are relocating to the facility.
He said about 75% of the housing portion of the project, Phase 2, has been completed and it will soon be ready for occupancy.
The garage sale, Campbell said, was scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There was a rush of people who came when the event opened, he said, and by shortly after noon he was ready to declare the sale a “complete success” while adding there were still plenty of items to check out.
Campbell said the garage sale was a volunteer operation. Volunteers, he said, included Drew Joenks, Tony Moore, Gordie Hanson, Mike McCoolhey, Matt Busho, Levi Hanson, John Talley, Kate Joenks and “many more.”
The Sons of the American Legion is always thinking of ways to help the community, Joenks said. The group also sponsors a golf tournament in the summer and this year the proceeds will go the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon organization.
Sons of the American Legion members are men of all ages whose parents or grandparents served in the U.S. military and were eligible for American Legion memberships. A number of local residents are members of both organizations, he said.