People in 109 homes were officially part of a community-wide yard sale in Nipomo on Saturday morning.
While the popular event started four years ago with only 62 homes, it’s grown exponentially since then.
Amy Arguijo saw this year’s sale as the perfect opportunity to show her daughter, Emma, how to give back to the community and the impact it has on others.
“I think it's cool and nice that we could see people that we never met before and get to know them sometime and then maybe meet them," Emma said.
The family recently started thrifting and Amy said participating in the community-wide yard sale teaches her children it’s about so much more than scoring a great deal.
“She has kind of seen how you give all the stuff that people used to have a new home and a new opportunity to be used and not just thrown away," Amy said.
Families aren’t the only ones involved in the sale. Just up the street from Emma and Amy, the Nipomo Senior Center hosts a bake sale and bazaar on the same day as the yard sale and that's not a coincidence.
Pat Hermenegildo is the Senior Center's public relations person.
“I said, hey, let's do this together," Hermenegildo said. "We'll do our bake sale. You handle the community yard sale part.”
Last year, the bake sale made $680 and the bazaar brought in $4,600 for the non-profit senior center.
Organizers said events, especially a high-profile and successful one like this, are crucial to keeping the doors open.
“We operate on donations," Hermenegildo said. "We are all volunteers, so nobody gets paid. So we are doing the bake sale to put the money back into the senior center.”
Teresa Lopez came from Santa Maria to give back to the center. She said it’s a pivotal place for people who have retired in the area.
“Without the center here, it would have been very hard for [my] mom," Lopez said. "I'm telling you right now, it would have. So this center here in Nipomo has been an awesome, tremendously transformed and helped my mom through the journey of life.”
Many people in Nipomo, young and old, are already eagerly looking forward to next year.
“[Emma's] into it, my little ones are into it," Amy said. "And now we're able to share what we have and give it a new home.”
