As soon as Gwen Thompson hangs a sold sign on her Sterling home, the monthly yard sale at Briar Patch Park may close.
Thompson oversaw the sale for the past 22 years and handled placing messages on the park's community message board, both used to raise funds for supporting the park. She needs someone to take over the voluntary position if the sale and sign are to continue, since she plans on moving to Orange County, Calif.
"She has done everything. She is the founder, creator and caretaker," said Sky Dantinne, manager of the Sterling Community Center. "She's basically been the lifeline of the park."
Thompson was a member of the Sterling Jaycees when she first volunteered to help establish and upkeep the park. The land where the park now sits was a briar patch owned by the public schools, a five-acre plot once included in the property for Rolling Ridge Elementary School. The school district sold the property to the county for $1 in the late 1970s.
The Jaycees wanted to turn the property into a park and organized a community group to raise the funds, which are placed in the Briar Patch Fund after they are collected from the yard sale and later the sign. The Jaycees used some of the funds, along with a county contribution, to purchase wooden playground equipment, which has since been replaced. The Jaycees oversaw the park, raising money for the park's upkeep, such as planting flowers and trees, along with buying new playground equipment as it was needed and installing benches and a pavilion.
"It's the love of the park. We wanted to keep the park up," said Thompson, chair of the Briar Patch Yard Sale and a Jaycees member since 1978. "If you go there on a sunny day, the parking lot is packed. It gets an awful lot of traffic."
THE COUNTY provided basic upkeep and repair work for the park, but the Jaycees raised funds for any of the extra projects. The Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services usually has to apply for Make It Happen grants or ask for Capital Improvement Project (CIP) funds to purchase new playground equipment for the county's park facilities.
"It allowed more income to be put back in the park," said Wayne Hyatt, projects coordinator and maintenance supervisor of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services, the county department that owns the park. "It's considerably sped up the improvements. ... It's benefited by keeping that facility one of the best facilities we have as far as playground equipment goes."
The sign, which sits on Sterling Boulevard in front of the park, served as a community message board for non-profit groups but later was used for personal messages as well. The personal messages require a fee.
"That sign has brought in a lot of revenue, and it's a big part of the community," Dantinne said. "The community sees it as a place to get information."
The Jaycees folded in January 2001 due to a lack of membership, leaving the park without a sponsor. The non-profit Sterling Community Advisory Board agreed in March of that year to provide the sponsorship, since Thompson needed a non-profit group to allow her to use the group's name.
"They [the members] wanted to see it continue," Dantinne said. "Since we worked with Gwen before in the past and were familiar with the park, we were very receptive."
"She's been a really good person to get stuff moving and built," Hyatt said.
THOMPSON CHANGES the messages on the sign, collects money raised from the sales and doles it out to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services for improvement projects.
"I'm just trying to find somebody to take on the yard sale and the sign if possible," Thompson said. "I've had some calls."
Thompson said even if a replacement is not found, the park will not "deteriorate. It won't fall apart. Parks and rec would take care of it."
Dantinne said volunteers for the Sterling Community Center are hard to come by, adding that the advisory board "has become very small." "In some of the other areas of the county, it's different. In the Sterling area, we get a low participation from volunteers," he said. "It seems to be a lack of community involvement, which is frustrating. That's the reason we need to help continue these things."
The next yard sale is scheduled for May 18, and additional sales depend on when Thompson moves or a replacement is found. On average, 25 to 80 vendors participate in the sales, which take place the third Saturday of the month from March through October and the second Saturday in November. A rain date is set for the Saturday after the scheduled sale.
"The community would be up in arms at the loss of the yard sale," Dantinne said.