By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
ALCOVE — Rainy weather pretty much all day long may have deterred some people from putting on their annual yard sales Saturday, but Alcove Day still drew plenty of visitors and volunteers looking to help their community.
The event, held each spring, gives the community a day to host yard sales and historic programs at local landmarks, and gives not-for-profit groups a chance to raise money for their causes.
“We are having our 28th annual Alcove Day yard sales to help the community, to help people to hold yard sales and make some money,” said Tom Sweeney, president of the Alcove Preservation Association. “The firehouse is open selling breakfast sandwiches, Trinity United Methodist Church is having a luncheon and The Little Red Schoolhouse is selling items to raise income for their organizations.
Alcove Day also serves as a fundraiser for the event’s host, the Alcove Preservation Association, which raises money through the sale of maps — at $1 apiece — to provide shoppers with information on where yard sales were being held in the town and what kinds of items were on offer at each site.
“We charge a registration fee to help offset the costs of advertising and printing of the maps to direct people to where the yard sales are,” Sweeney said.
Items from yard equipment to furniture, golf clubs, clothing, toys and even a tanning bed and baby grand piano were up for grabs, but it is unclear how many homes declined to hold their sales in light of the wet weather.
One home even offered a horse-drawn buggy, according to the map.
The doors to the Coeymans Hollow Volunteer Fire Corporation’s firehouse on Route 143 opened at 7:30 a.m. to sell made-to-order hot breakfast sandwiches. Despite the rain, the flow of yard sale shoppers was steady all morning long and the sandwich sale was sold out by 10 a.m., according to the department.
Funds raised for the Alcove Preservation Association are used to further the group’s preservation efforts at historic sites, including the prominent Valley Paper Mill Park off Route 143, where a historic chimney that dates back to 1844 towers over the community.
The group has been working for years to preserve the tower and surrounding park. Ownership of the site was transferred to the town a couple of years ago, but the group continues to spearhead its maintenance and preservation.
Work has been ongoing at the site for years.
“We need to repoint the rest of the chimney stack up to the top, plus put some repair bands at the top of the chimney, where it’s cracked,” Sweeney said, referring to stainless steel bands that would be placed behind the mortar work to reinforce the structure.
“Brick work is expensive, and it gets more expensive the higher you go,” Sweeney said.
The chimney is approximately 94-feet tall.
While some homeowners may have held off on yard sales in light of the rainy weather, things were still hopping over at Trinity United Methodist Church, where volunteers served up the annual Alcove Day luncheon.
“We have done this for the past few years and it is always successful — we are selling out of food,” volunteer Melanie Collins said. “It’s a fundraiser for the church and we also have donations of toys, household goods and other things that we are selling, and we had a bake sale as well.”
“The weather has no impact on us because everyone wants to get out and see each other and spend some fellowship time together,” Collins added. “A lot of people look forward to it.”
The church does many events and programs to help the community, volunteer Linda Keir said.
“We have been doing this luncheon since Alcove Day first started,” Keir said as she helped prepare meals. “I just love serving my church and I love volunteering. We do the food pantry, we have a pork dinner coming up on May 20, then in June we have a car show — Hot Rods in the Hollow. This church is very involved in the community. We try to support the community and have activities so people have things to look forward to.”
“I think we have had more people here today because of the weather,” Keir added.
For volunteer Evelyn Stone, volunteering is a way of life.
“I volunteer because I belong to this church and I have been coming to this church since I was 10 years old,” Stone said. “I think Alcove Day is very good for the community because one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
