Not your typical garage sale

Sometimes a garage sale is more than a garage sale. The "Truly Priceless Garage Sale" was one of many activities that earned Mike and Marybeth Schoenwald the Arlington Heights Best Neighbor Heart of Gold award.

While Marybeth started the annual garage sales to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina, they are much more than fundraisers.

Marybeth and Mike are all about getting things that people no longer want to people who need them. Thus the St. James parishioners advertise the sales in churches that serve low-income communities. When shoppers see something they need, they pay what they can afford.

"A family of a pregnant couple with a couple of kids can leave with a car full of stuff. They might only pay a couple of dollars because fundraising is not our only focus," said Marybeth.

Mike tells a story of an older man who said he had a sink to donate. When Mike got to his house, the sink turned out to be concrete. After manhandling it home, Mike just put it on the driveway.

"A young couple came by and said, 'It's just what we need for our house,'" he said.

Over five years the sales have raised $9,000, and purchasers can designate which of a few charities they want to receive their money.