By Shaun Szkolnik
For The Tribune
Udpate: Due to the possibility of inclement weather this event, for consigners and the sale, has been postponed indefinitely. More information will follow as it becomes available.
TRUSSVILLE – The YMCA Trussville will be holding a sports consignment sale on Friday and Saturday. It will be an opportunity to pick up some well-priced sports equipment while helping to send children to camp this summer. Tickets are available here.
It will also be an opportunity for those that want to clean out their closets and sell some consignment items of their own. Those interested in being consigners may register here.
Trussville YMCA will be accepting ticketed items for consignment starting on Tuesday and ending on Friday. Participants will be able to bring in their items from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday through Thursday, but only a half day will be available on Thursday to bring in consignment items.
Consigners will get to keep 70 percent of the sale of their items with 30 percent going to the YMCA.
According to Executive Director Kim Ryals, the YMCA will be using the funds to help kids go to summer camp.
“At the Trussville YMCA, each summer we have around a 150 who participate in summer camp,” Ryals said. “For some individuals, average price of camp is $1,200 per child for the summer. That is 120 per week, and so we have this opportunity for fundraising for parents who can’t afford that.”
YMCA summer camps offer a wealth of activities and learning for children in the community.
“We have field trips,” Ryals said. “We have activities literally every 30 minutes, games, we do STEM projects twice a week, we even have an innovation project called a Thingamajig. It is an invention convention, during the summer the kids are inventing things that they bring to this convention that we have a sale at. It provides an amazing opportunity for children in the summer. And we don’t turn anybody away for the inability to pay.”
Participants in the consignment event will be helping the Trussville YMCA provide that opportunity to children.
“My goal is to be able sponsor about 30 children,” said Ryals, “with either partial or full scholarships this summer, and that would be around $36,000, and so this sale is just going to help go towards that.”
Projects like the sports consignment sale go a long way in helping the YMCA Trussville reach that goal.
“Whenever someone donates to the Y, be that a donation or through this sports sale, 100 percent of that donation goes towards supporting payment for the summer camp,” Ryals said. “We don’t have overhead at the Y because that is what dues are for. People pay to be members at the Y and that covers the light bill. So, this really is to help children in our community be a part of something in the summer.”