By ANEEKA SIMONIS
LAST week’s white elephant sale may have saved the plummeting Pakenham Rotary Club annual event.
The popular trash and treasure sale, which was been serving the community for 50 years, has been on the brink of extinction after attracting lower quality items and smaller crowds in the past few years.
Secretary of the Rotary Club of Pakenham Jim Armstrong said organisers almost decided not to hold the sale.
“We thought we were not going to stage it this year but then when we realised it was the 50th white elephant sale so we thought we have to do it.
“We got much better results than last year. It drew a pretty good crowd. It wasn’t huge but they were all certainly interested and followed the auctioneer around.
“We had better quality stuff to sell. In previous years, we may have had a larger volume but not the quality,” Mr Armstrong said.
Plenty of treasure hunters bagged a bargain on the day including one person who left with a second-hand car while others left with generators, fridges, tables, chairs and lamps in tow.
The white elephant sale has long been treasured by the community which reaps rewards from the bargain event.
The Rotary Club of Pakenham, which gets about 15 per cent of the profits from each sale, has raised about $200,000 for various community projects since the event began in 1964.
“A lot of good quality stuff got sold this year which makes for a good profit toward our local charities and community,” Mr Armstrong said.
As much as the sale is about making a dollar, the community also looks forward to the free spring clean.
“It’s not just a sale, it’s what we do around the community by cleaning out storage areas and selling unwanted stuff for them,” Mr Armstrong said.
The Rotary Club of Pakenham said it has plenty more fund-raising schemes up its sleeve ff the white elephant sale does not survive, including mental health forums, debutante balls and jazz events.
Mr Armstrong said the anniversary sale, which was held at the Pakenham Recreational Reserved from 9am to 2.30pm on Saturday, attracted about 200 people.
