Belgian Hall’s annual yard sale guaranteed to offer good deals

Vicki Hartlen Delhi News-Record
Thursday August 25, 2005

Delhi News-Record — It was a beautiful day for a yard sale last week as members of the Delhi Belgian Ladies Auxiliary held their 12th annual yard sale.
“We got rained out last week when we were supposed to hold this,” said Herna Verhaeghe, co-convener. “We didn’t want to wait to long from then, but this has ended up being the perfect day for a yard sale.”
From their opening at 6:30 a.m. Verhaeghe said the crowds were steady as they made their way through tables of kitchen accessories, children’s toys, knick-knacks, clothing and other items.
“We took away two tables already,” said Anita VanHerzele, co-convener. “That’s how busy we’ve been, we’ve emptied two big tables.”

Although there were prices on most items, VanHerzele and Vanhaeghe said they were willing to barter with buyers.

“We had one Mexican Mennonite family come in here and you just knew they didn’t have a lot of money,” recalled VanHerzele. “We gave them extra stuff for free because we knew it would help them.”

VanHerzele said the only payment they needed in some cases was the smiles on the faces of others.
“There was a single mother who came in here and she wanted to get a comforter and two curtains, but the price said $10,” explained VanHerzele. “She told us she didn’t have enough, so we agreed to take whatever she did have.
“You know that that was something she needed and you could just see the smile on her face from helping her out.”
All proceeds from the day’s event go back to the Belgian Hall.
“They use it for renovations and anything else that they need,” Verhaeghe added.
Greg Brandon, 10, of Delhi came to the yard sale with his mother. Even though Brandon was not buying anything, he did look carefully through the variety of items.
“They’ve got some good stuff here,” he said. “I’m not going to get anything but I know my mom wanted to find some bargains.”
While both conveners said a large percentage of their buyers were migrant workers, they said the timing wasn’t right to accommodate all of them.
“Migrant workers are still in the fields until later,” said Verhaeghe. “Next year we want to see if we can maybe have this on a weekend, so more of them can come and buy stuff.”