Shop to support school in Haiti

Funds from St. Augustine Catholic Church's annual yard sale help provide a hot meal each day to 1,500 students at the school which parishioners started in Petite Riviere de Nippes, Haiti.
Funds from St. Augustine Catholic Church's annual yard sale help provide a hot meal each day to 1,500 students at the school which parishioners started in Petite Riviere de Nippes, Haiti.

Get an early start on your bargain-hunting at the Highway 127 World's Longest Yard Sale, set for Aug. 3-6, with St. Augustine Catholic Church's yard sale which kicks off Tuesday, July 25. Continuing through Aug. 6, the sale benefits St. Antoine School, the American Haitian Foundation's school in Petite Riviere de Nippes, Haiti.

St. Augustine's sale will be held in a big tent at 2900 Taft Highway from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.

"All proceeds go directly to Haiti to support our school," said Betty Miles, a board member of the Signal Mountain-based American Haitian Foundation. "It's a really good fundraiser for a great cause."

Shoppers at the church's annual sale, which has been held for the past 17 years, will find housewares, furniture, antiques, toys, sporting goods, jewelry, small and large appliances, even a car. Most items in the sale have been donated by one of the 377 families in the St. Augustine parish, but the church will also be accepting community donations of any items aside from clothing at the sale tent July 25 and 26. To arrange for the pickup of large items, call Allen Vessels at 886-6223 prior to July 29.

photo Customers check out the selection at St. Augustine Catholic Church's annual yard sale benefiting the school parishioners started in Petite Riviere de Nippes, Haiti.

The American Haitian Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization, was established in 2000 to support the school, which was founded by St. Augustine members 17 years ago. The school, where 1,500 children in kindergarten through 13th grade attend, serves a hot, protein-fortified meal to students every day.

The funds made through the annual yard sale help provide those meals, as well as employ a staff of 108 Haitians, purchase books and supplies, and maintain the facilities. The church also organizes and funds an annual medical mission providing health and dental exams for all students.

"It helps the children have a brighter future, but it also helps the town," Miles said of the school, which provided food and shelter to everyone in town during the recent hurricane. "[Students] become productive members of their small communities because they're educated."

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