St. Thomas the Apostle of West Hempstead held its monthly “Junk in the Trunk” tag sale on May 16. The next tag sale is tentatively set for June 27, according to program runner Michelle Mayer.
People sold clothes, board games, video games, jewelry, accessories, collectibles, CDs, DVDs, lawn decorations, sports jerseys and toys, along with various other household items.
Mayer began running the tag sale after coming as a seller to the first sale. “The person in charge of the parish rectory told me, ‘you’re good at this, I want you to run it,’” she said. “So I guess I’ve been ‘anointed,’ that’s how this fell into my lap,” she joked.
Mayer appreciates the involvement of the West Hempstead community, and surrounding communities, in the tag sale. “We have a really great group of people, they don’t all come to our church, but they’re mostly local people,” she said. “They’re all very supportive, they usually stop by one time and come to the next one.”
Along with secondhand sellers, a family with two new businesses attended the tag sale. Josh and Danielle Varon each have a business that makes use of their craftsmanship and creativity.
Josh Varon created Plant & Play Co. at the beginning of this year, wanting to reuse and ‘upcycle’ the old chinaware he had around the house in a creative way. “These are all succulents that we’ve put in the cups and bowls,” he said. “I started this because I wanted to do more creative activities with my kids, and it turned into our business.”
Varon’s mini vases made their debut at the May 16 tag sale. “It’s our first time here, we saw the listing and said, ‘let’s do it,’” he said.
Danielle Varon started Dava Candles Co. in March, making her candles from scratch. “I like nice looking things and good smells, so the idea came to me pretty easily,” she said. “I wanted to make quality candles but make them affordable.”
She makes the candles from soy wax and mixes the colored dyes and the scents with the wax to make her designs and colors for each individual candle. “I started the tester project for temperature, dyes, smells, and designs, and so the ones at the tag sale here are the first from that batch,” she said.
