'Old' is ready to be 'gold'
MISHAWAKA, Ind.-- The tables are set, the price tags are marked and the “Old to Gold” sale is ready to go!
ABC 57 got a sneak peek at the plethora of products available at the greatest garage sale in Michiana!
As the saying goes, “one man's trash, is another man's treasure.”
"From the bikes to the furniture to the clothing, all the house wares, it all comes out of the residence halls,” said Amy Coughlin, the Director of central communications for Notre Dame. “We want people to have the benefit of getting a great thing at a great price."
This year’s sale is housed in the former Steve and Barry’s building in Mishawaka. All 300,000 square feet are packed with stuff Notre Dame students left behind.
"What we do is we collect it and we put it all in our warehouse on campus at the end of the year,” explained Coughlin. “Then we bring in all of our volunteer organizations and they're the ones who actually sort it and get it all organized."
For the past month, hundreds of volunteers from non-profit organizations have dedicated more than 2500 hours to putting all of this together.
"It's really mind-boggling," said Volunteer Coordinator, Bill Nowostawski.
Nowostawski ensures every participating non-profit gets their share of the sale's profits.
"Hopefully we're going to make $60,000 this year,” said Nowostawski. “That [money] is divided among the 39 agencies depending how many volunteers they had, how many hours they worked. That is how much the agency gets for their share of the ‘Old to Gold’ sale."
But, before the volunteers can count the profits, they have to survive the sale!
"It's pure chaos,” said Nowostawski. “The whole sale lasted about two and a half hours last year and there were people trying to get in and there was nothing left. So, it works very well for the community, Notre Dame and us."
Volunteers are expecting 4000 to 5000 people to come through the sale on Saturday morning.
Tickets are on sale at 7 a.m. and cost $5 per person, but, the doors to the sale don't open until 9 a.m.