Each year, Rentschler Farm Museum represents the City of Saline with vendor booths and items for sale during Michigan’s Longest Garage Sale — spanning the breadth of the Great Lakes State, for over two hundred miles and eight counties intersected by the US 12 Heritage Trail. [1,2]
For 2018, this event runs August 10 through 12. For Saline, it represents the largest fundraising opportunity for the Saline Area Historical Society. Following is an excerpt from the report on last year by Society Director Emeritus Agnes Dikeman.
The 2017 Yard Sale was a resounding success. The annual fundraiser is in the tenth year running. The weather was just great and brought 2200 visitors from far and wide …. We especially appreciate the support of our twenty-one booth renters who were with us for two days, as well as over fifty volunteers, some of whom worked two or three shifts.
What may not be as apparent from this perspective is the larger marketing initiative that makes this timing uniquely powerful.
The US 12 Heritage Trail Council promotes and serves as central clearing house for information on participating sales. Organizations such as the Saline Area Historical Society can provide contact information for those interested in securing booth space for this event at Rentschler Farm Museum, for example. Individual yard sales can list their offerings. [3]
Beyond this, ad hoc initiatives are encouraged to setup in “homes, farms, businesses, parking lots and fields” anywhere along the way as well. This undoubtedly includes countless entrepreneurial types who’ll seek to lure bargain hunters a bit off the main path with encouraging signs on Michigan Avenue, proper. The scale is such that a dedicated “overnight Accommodations” page has been setup on the US 12 Heritage Trail site as well. [4]
Look for Saline to up the ante there in 2019 once our newly constructed Best Western Premier Hotel is open for business. [5]
There’s a lot to do during the weekend starting on August 10 in the City of Saline. Your support of the Saline Area Historical Society by making the Rentschler Farm Museum yard sale a part of that will undoubtely be appreciated. But the larger scope would suggest that the sort of options and deals expected to be offered promise to make the greatest winners the people who are themselves coming out to shop that day.
References
- “Rentschler Farm Museum” Saline Area Historical Society.
- US 12 Heritage Trail (home page).
- “US 12 Heritage Trail Council” US 12 Heritage Trail.
- “Overnight Accommodations” US 12 Heritage Trail.
- “Today Will Be Remembered As Day Eastgate Saline Skyline Changed Forever, With The Hotel Now In Sight” Dell Deaton (June 26, 2018) Saline Journal.
