Baker City Young Life schedules banquet and yard sale fundraisers

A free banquet at Baker High School and a yard sale a week later will be Baker City Young Life’s latest push to keep its youth ministry funded in a county of 16,082 people. The organization is using two familiar fundraisers to support local work with middle-school, high-school and college-age young people, while giving adults who care about kids another way to plug into the effort.

The annual banquet is set for Friday, April 24, at 6 p.m. in the commons at Baker High School, 2500 E St. The event is titled Grow. Along with live music, the program will include silent and live auctions, giving supporters a free evening to show up and help underwrite the ministry. A second fundraiser, a yard sale, is planned for May 1 and 2.

Those events matter because Baker City Young Life has long relied on local giving to keep its program running. A 2009 Baker City Herald item said profits from a golf tournament went toward camp scholarships and club expenses, the kinds of costs that determine whether local teens can attend Young Life activities and whether the ministry can keep operating close to home. In a small county where Baker City serves as the county seat, turnout at a banquet or yard sale can make a direct difference in what the organization can offer.

The local club has deep roots in Baker County. A 2010 Herald story said the ministry began after Eric and Kristy Sandefur moved to town and helped form the effort. “We basically formed a committee and started praying about it,” Eric Sandefur said. Another account said Young Life has been active in Baker County since 2000, and a 2020 column marked the group’s 20th year in Baker City. A 2025 column said the program was revived last year, underscoring how the ministry has seen both continuity and renewal.

For Baker City families, that history is tied to a simple question: whether the spring fundraisers draw enough support to keep scholarships, club expenses and local outreach moving into the summer. The banquet offers one chance to give, and the yard sale offers another.