Coupeville Lions Club garage sale returns June 26 at elementary school
Coupeville Lions Club has filled its storage and closed donations early before its June 26-28 garage sale at Coupeville Elementary, where proceeds fund local needs.
The Coupeville Lions Club has already filled its storage spaces and closed donations before its annual garage sale opens at Coupeville Elementary School. The three-day sale will begin with a preview on June 26, open fully on June 27 and finish with bargain negotiations on June 28, turning donated household castoffs into money for community services on Central Whidbey.
That money matters. Garage sale chair Rick Walti said a good year can bring in $45,000 to $50,000, a large sum for a local service club that depends on volunteer labor and donated goods instead of big-ticket sponsors. A 2024 letter from the club said the sale generated more than $40,000 in sales of donated merchandise, showing how much Island County residents can still raise by passing along furniture, appliances, tools, plants and other usable items.
The club begins collecting donations in mid-August and usually keeps going until about April, but storage has filled so completely in recent years that it has sometimes stopped far earlier. Club president Gary Youngs said last year the club had to refuse donations as early as January. This season, the club had already closed donations because it had more merchandise than it could hold, a sign of how deeply the sale is woven into the giving habits of Whidbey Island households.
Deanna Rogers, the club’s public relations chair, said the event has become part of the island’s calendar. “Everybody enjoys it. The community looks forward to it every year,” she said. Her comment fits the scene behind the sale itself: items are moved through several secret storage locations around Central Whidbey, including donated barn space in Ebey’s Prairie, before volunteers sort and stage them for the school sale. The club has said the work is worth it because the group spends weeks together preparing and knows the proceeds will return to local needs.
Those proceeds support firewood cutting for needy residents, community projects for boys and girls, and donations to the food bank. The club also says its service focus includes Vision, Hearing, Diabetes, Hunger, Environment and Youth, which helps explain why a garage sale can carry so much weight in a town like Coupeville. Established in 1938, the club has made the annual sale one of its largest and most community-supportive fundraisers, a tradition that keeps volunteer service visible and cash moving toward everyday needs.
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