Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Museum parking lot considered perfect for fundraising
BELLA VISTA — In 2019, Dustie Meads was volunteering at the Bella Vista Historical Museum when the topic of the first Citywide Garage Sale came up.
She just happened to be looking out the window at the parking lot and the traffic moving up and down U.S. 71B at the time, and it occurred to her that the parking lot of the museum was a great spot to set up a sale. And just like that, a new fundraiser was created.
Since she was the one who came up with the idea, Meads was immediately appointed to chair the event, but she didn’t mind, she said. Being at the museum during the citywide sale would keep her from visiting the dozens of individual sales all over Bella Vista. She figured that would be a good way to save money, she said.
She knew that Farmers Markets that set up in parking lots used the spaces for boundaries, and that made it easy to insure every vendor gets a similar space, she said. In 2019, the plan was to use only the spaces in front of the museum so the number of participants was limited. This year, Meads has already spoken to the new owners of the former American Legion building and gotten permission to use that parking lot as well. She’ll have at least 25 spaces available and still have plenty of space for customer parking.
In fact, if the event is very popular, Meads plans to arrange for auxiliary parking on some of the grass around the museum. A volunteer will be drafted to direct traffic, she said.
Many of the spaces have already been reserved, she said. In fact several of them are repeat customers who took part in 2019. The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of covid restrictions.
The museum will open early on both April 29 and 30 during the sale. In fact, Meads said, volunteers will have coffee and cookies ready for visitors inside the museum at 7:30 a.m.
She said she expects that museum volunteer Jill Werner will have her homemade jam available in the gift shop that day. Of course, she said, anyone who goes inside for coffee or jam will be offered the chance to tour the museum as well.
She said she expects that vendors will have mostly typical yard sale items available, including household goods. Many of them can’t set up in their own yards because there’s no parking for customers or they are too far out in the country.
Last time, one vendor had an inflatable mattress for sale and the museum provided an extension cord so they could blow it up and show it was usable. Meads was getting ready to buy it when a family with kids arrived and said it was exactly what they needed for when company arrived the next weekend. They unplugged it and let the kids roll on it to deflate the air, and everyone was very happy with the transaction, she said.
There are still a few spaces left. To reserve one call Meads for details at 479-3818546. The rental will be $25 for one space or $45 for two spaces. That cost covers both days of the sale. The sale is scheduled for April 29- 30 with rain dates of May 6-7. Setup begins at 8 a.m. and the sale will shut down by 5 p.m.
Vendor parking will be on the grass north and east of the Settler’s Cabin on the museum property. The museum will be open the same hours both days.