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Update: Day 2 of the massive Long Island Angels Yard Sale in Bellport has been cancelled due to weather.
“It’s going to be too nasty,” said Angels co-founder Debbie Loesch.
Loesch said the first day of the sale, Saturday, was a huge success, with lines snaking through the neighborhood to get in.
The yard sale even caught the attention of News 12 Long Island, which featured it Saturday evening.
The Long Island Angels group, now over 30,000-strong on Facebook, is trying to raise enough money to buy or lease warehouse space.
Original story: You might come across an outdoor flea market billing itself as the world’s largest yard sale, but what you won’t find is an actual yard.
The Angels of Long Island yard sale this Saturday and Sunday in Bellport (details below) just might be the largest yard sale ever put together on a single-dwelling property.
“Yeah, this is going to be huge,” said Angels of Long Island co-founder Debbie Loesch as she led a tour of the tents, tables and portable toilets set up around her home Thursday. “They talk about multi-family yard sales, well this is a 30,000-family yard sale.”
It was less than nine months ago when Loesch and her daughter, Brittany Loesch, uffarted the Long Island Angels Facebook group.
The group, which rallies whenever there’s a Long Island family in need the Angels post about, now has over 30,000 members and is a state-registered nonprofit.
Two months ago, the Angels started asking for donations for the yard sale.
In the time since, they’ve received about 200 pieces of furniture, 10,000 articles of clothing, and dozens of boxes of children’s toys, indoor and outdoor.
“We’ve got more clothes than Burlington,” Debbie Loesch said. “And all the clothes will be $1 — I don’t care if it’s a three-piece suit or a T-shirt.
There will also be 50 tables set up for housewares, such as pots and pans and appliances, and a whole tent dedicated to baby stuff like side-sleepers and changing tables.
“A lot of this stuff still has the tags on it,” she added. “It’s hard to give away.”
Also on hand for the kids will be a Mickey Mouse character, sand art and snow cones, as well as bake sale items and hot dogs and other snack from Robinson’s Market in Patchogue.
Read: How the Long Island Angels are changing lives, one family at a time
There will also be movers at the ready for local deliveries; the Angels just ask that you tip them $20 per haul.
The proceeds from the yard sale will go toward the ongoing efforts to find an affordable warehouse where the Long Island Angels can store the steady stream of donations.
The Angels have a network of drop-off stations around the island but much ends up in the Bellport house.
“I never expected so much stuff,” Debbie said.
“We never expect this much,” added Brittany. “But it happens.”
The yard sale runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 54 Association Road in Bellport, which is between Montauk Highway and Head of the Neck Road.
Photos by Michael White:
Top: Denise France of Medford folds clothes on Thursday in Debbie Loesch’s yard.
Middle: Six portable toilets from Outback Portable Toilets line the driveway.
Bottom: Debbie Loesch peeks inside the tent storing housewares.
