Centre Hall puts community in annual yard sale

By Stephanie Koons

For some people, a yard sale may mean buying inexpensive items at someone’s home, putting the merchandise into the car and driving away.

For the residents of Centre Hall, a yard sale is a day to celebrate community.

Throughout Centre Hall, homeowners put tables in their yard, and filled them with clothes, toys, appliances and memorabilia as the annual townwide yard sale got under way. Churches and local businesses set up concessions, selling items such as sticky buns, hamburgers and homemade soup.

The sale continues from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.

“Everybody and their brother comes to these Centre Hall yard sales,” said Keith Lose, who has lived in Centre Hall for most of his 34 years. “Anything and everything is just for sale.”

“It’s the second biggest event to Grange Fair,” said Jack Muthersbaugh, vice president of Centre Hall Fire Company No. 4, which sells sticky buns, hamburgers and hot dogs each year at the yard sale.

The event gets bigger every year, he added, as more concession stands and local businesses take part.

LeDon Young, a lawyer in Centre Hall, said the yard sale has been a tradition for the past 30 years. She and Connie Zellers get together in the spring to decide on dates, but the sellers pretty much organize themselves. Young said she advertises in newspapers across the region, and people come from as far as DuBois, Lewistown, Sunbury and Tyrone.

Those people probably wouldn’t come to Centre Hall for a single yard sale, she said. But, “for a town full of yard sales, they’re going to take the time to drive down to this.”

The sale is a “wonderful way to recycle,” she said, adding that a lot of parents come to buy children’s clothes. “In these trying times, it’s a way to save money,” she said.

Carole Ripka and Pitsy Rossman came from Rebersburg to look for bargains. By midday, her car was full of merchandise, she said.

Ripka, who said she is a used-book dealer, found books at the Centre Hall Area Branch’s Library’s Used Book Sale, an annual fundraiser for the library that is held during the yard sale. She also found a dresser for her grandson who is in college. Rossman said she bought a Christmas tree for her son.

“Even in this day and age with the prices on everything, you just get good prices, you get good deals,” said Cathy Packer, who was helping with her sister’s yard sale.

Linda Barner, who said she has been selling almost every year the yard sale has been held, said she presents a “culmination of family treasures” including books, clothes, dishes and video games.

“It’s just sort of tradition, I guess,” she said.