Preparations underway for Rowan Museum’s ‘Upscale Yard Sale’ this weekend

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, April 11, 2018

SALISBURY — Everyone should have an “A team,” and Sandra Roakes says hers includes Betsy Cunningham and Lyndia Heward.

Tuesday afternoon, these women were joined by Hilda Miller, Judy Miller, Kim Edds, Aaron Kepley and Evin Burleson to sort through and categore items that will be available at Rowan Museum’s Upscale Yard Sale this weekend.

Looking around at all the activity, Roakes deflected any notion that she’s the ramrod behind the annual yard sale.

“I’m just a spoke in a big wheel,” Roakes said.

This year’s Upscale Yard Sale will go from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, mostly in the upstairs Messinger Room of Rowan Museum, 202 N. Main St. Some of the bigger items not easily lugged upstairs will be for sale downstairs.

Sunday also happens to be $5 bag day. Everything from the yard sale you can get into a Rowan Museum-supplied paper bag will cost you only $5.

The public is invited, and there’s no admission.

Kepley, executive director of the museum, said expectations are that this year’s yard sale will exceed the $4,000 mark in sales from 2017.

All proceeds go to Rowan Museum Inc., and all the items for sale are donated in the community. Most of them come from the highly supportive membership of Rowan Museum. Kepley said donated items will continue to be accepted through Friday.

“I think it will be the best we’ve ever had with the most we’ve ever had,” Roakes said. “People have been very generous this year. We try to make it live up to its name as an upscale yard sale.”

Roakes and her team started preparations for the yard sale Monday, and they will be working daily through late Friday afternoon to fill the Messinger Room with rows of tables and all things imaginable. Each item will be priced, but that doesn’t necessarily rule out negotiations.

On Tuesday, a lot of chairs remained in place in the center of the room. “We have to work around History Club tonight,” Roakes explained.

This is the third year for what’s becoming a highly popular sale.

“It’s always a pretty big deal,” Kepley said. “… We don’t get a whole lot of junk.”

The museum collected yard sale items throughout the year and stored them in the former Hallmark store at the county-owned West End Plaza.

Heward appreciates the effort everyone gives in making the sale a success.

“It’s the camaraderie that makes it worth it,” Heward said. “And everybody is so willing to work for the museum.”

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.