On Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, Columbia will lead the way for a Highway 98 Community Yard Sale, which was born from the desires of a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old, that will extend for nearly 60 miles.
Lainey and Chaplin, the young children of Sarah Wells, the organizer of the event, are yard sale enthusiasts and were begging their mom for months to do a yard sale. Wells and her family recently moved onto U.S. 98, and she thought it could get pretty big if she tried to get more people involved.
“They love, love, love spare change, and they’re saving for Disney World,” Wells explained. “We love yard saling; they love yard saling. We love the Highway 28 Yard Sale and thought, ‘Well, we live on 98.’ … So it was literally nothing but my toddlers.”
Wells, a local business owner, found out that Life Church of God on U.S. 98 had its yard sale in early October and thought that if it could get enough traction on social media, it could turn into a community wide event.
“It just blew up (on social media),” Wells said.
Life Church’s yard sale will be inside the church, but it is also renting out its massive parking lot for individuals to sell their belongings. Interested parties can show up to the church the day of and donate $20 to the church, and they will be given a space in the parking lot to sell from.
There are more than 20 locations that have already signed up so far to be a part of the community yard sale, which will span from Oloh to McComb. Businesses that will be participating include R House, Closet Finds Consignment Sale, Nana & Pop-Pop’s Shop, McComb Health Department, Robbins Roofing and Sheet Metal and more. There are also several individual homes that will have yard sales as well.
“I’m so stinkin’ excited. This is the first year, but I’m hoping it grows as the years go,” Wells said. “If Columbia is super involved, I would consider it a success. If our community comes together and does something huge like this on 98 that attracts attention, positive attention, to our town, I would consider it successful.”
The community yard sale begins at 7 a.m. on Oct. 3 and will extend through Oct. 4 and conclude at 2 p.m. A map of all of the participating locations can be viewed on the event’s Facebook page, titled “Highway 98 MS Community Yard Sale.”
