The Islesboro Second Baptist Church annual mid-July rummage sale kicked off at 9 a.m. on July 17 at the town’s Masonic Hall, when the rope dropped and multitudes of shoppers stormed in with sticky pads in hand to mark the best items “sold.” After a half-hour of frantic pile-sifting, attendees relaxed enough to socialize a bit with fellow bargain-hunters at what has become one of the island’s best-attended summer events.

The rummage sale is the biggest single fund-raiser for the church, and this year it brought in a total of $6,500 for the church’s budget. Pastor Edward Bacon attributes the sale’s more than two decades of success to people saving up donations all year to drop off on the Masonic Hall’s front steps a month before the sale begins, providing a large selection of goods to “rummage” through. However, most of the nuts-and-bolts operational success of the sale is due to rummage sale committee chairperson Evelyn Whitehouse, who, along with other committee members, puts in hours sorting, pricing and piling before the big event can occur.

This will be Pastor Ed Bacon’s last official rummage sale as chief overseer. He has accepted a new position as Pastor of the North Billerica Baptist Church in Billerica, Massachusetts, and will be starting his new assignment on Sept. 1, 2002.

Many people attend all three days of the sale, looking to unearth treasures they missed on day one, and to get even better deals on day two because everything is half price. Day three everything’s free, and bargain hunters can still find items of interest if they’re willing to face those mountains of piled up clothes. At the end of the third day, anything left is hauled off to the town’s transfer station, or to Goodwill.