by Kathy Slattery, Orchard Park Friends Meeting, NYYM
Background
Our small meeting (average at Sunday worship is eight) has the benefit of an almost 200-year-old meetinghouse, which was built to hold regional gatherings of 300. The meetinghouse is centrally located in a Quaker-founded village, on a main highway; it is iconic in the community. For a time, the building housed the fledgling historical society and the meeting, and many locals still assume it’s a museum, not a place of worship, despite the sign and welcome out front.
For the past four or five years, we have had a yard sale on a Friday and Saturday of a June weekend whose theme is Recycle, Reuse and Repurpose (and for Quakers, SIMPLIFY!). We have a very large front yard (lots of tables) and a big front porch where we put out books and some furniture. The first year, some of us worried that people might steal items from tarp-covered tables overnight. Those worries dissolved when we arrived Saturday morning to find that people had dropped off donated items for our sale. People donated everything from mugs to bookcases!
Benefits
The yard sale has brought out new and esteemed gifts within our meeting too, from recycling mountains of packing material to linking with local shelters and rural outreach with unsold items, to the gift of easy conversation with strangers, and sharing one’s passion (Canoeing? Quilting? Old Star Trek paperbacks?).
Now, the meetinghouse neighbors regularly donate items. People in the upscale community and more diverse commuters look forward to the sale each year due to low prices. Additionally, people meet genuine Quakers. Kids try out sports equipment on the lawn. Folks are welcomed to a personal tour of the inside of the meetinghouse. After years “in the red,” we are solidly in the black, and the proceeds allowed us to paint the meetinghouse. Overall, people have good feelings about those Quakers and their yard sale. This shows them that we are more than the Quaker oats logo on the doors of village police cars.
Last updated June 17, 2026.