Rummage sale raises $3K for veteran memorial at Ogden senior center
Photo supplied, Steve Ross
Joanna May holds a doll following the 1:30 p.m. call on all silent auction items during the Golden Hours Senior Center rummage sale, held Thursday and Friday, Sept. 1-2, 2022. May spent a total of $180 during the sale, all of which is going toward a veteran memorial at the center.OGDEN — Veterans of the Golden Hours Senior Center are $3,000 closer to making their dream of a veterans memorial at the center come true. Members of the community came out in droves Thursday and Friday to scour the center’s rummage sale and participate in a silent auction.
Golden Hours veteran Steve Ross said the community contributed a great deal to the success of the rummage sale by donated many items.
“We did really well,” Ross said, adding $1,300 had been raised on the first day.
Tables marked “tools” and “holiday decor” were nearly bare three hours in on second and final day of the sale, but furniture, glass figurines and military-themed movies on VHS were aplenty.
Rita Oliver, who learned of the sale while eating lunch at the Marshall White Center, said she was pleased with the brand-new, still-in-the-box Asian tea set she purchased for $2.
About $200 in funds raised came from a donation jar put out by senior center staff. With the total cost of the memorial estimated around $100,000, the city-run facility needs all the help it can get.
Joanna May spent $180 for a number of prized items, including a porcelain doll donated for the silent auction. According to Ross, there were approximately 7,000 items in the auction.
Participants interested in auction items had a choice to purchase an item up front if they did not want to wait and leave it to fate.
Two bicycles were among the popular items in the auction. Ross said they were purchased outright for $195 each after 10 bids had placed on them.
Ross said the money raised from the event is a great start for the memorial.
Seven stones in the shape of Utah will line the outside of the senior center in a dome-like design from the west side to the east side. Each stone, representing a different branch of the U.S. military including the Space Force and prisoners of war those missing in action, will be accompanied by a flag flying the branch’s symbols.
The design is tentative as group members are still working out details surrounding granite stones community members can have incorporated with a donation.
Each military stone, however, will incorporate names of past and present veterans under their branch of service.
An additional stone for Golden Hour veterans, design and placement not yet decided, will have the names of past and present members.