Barn sale back to one giant weekend of bargains

St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva experimented last year with the 33rd annual Barn Sale.

Instead of having the gigantic rummage sale on one weekend in September, it spread the sale out over 10 weekends in the summer, at the sale’s warehouse.

But this year, bargain hunters should circle Sept. 17 and 18 on their calendars, because the Barn Sale is going back to its roots.

“It has been a happening, an event. Both our customers and volunteers were quite adamant in their discussions about going back to the fairgrounds,” said Rama Canney, the church’s communications and volunteer coordinator. “There were just a million reasons.”

Shoppers preferred the way the goods were displayed at the more-spacious Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles, and liked being able to choose from everything at once, she said. Some said they were afraid they would miss good deals if they skipped one of the 10 smaller sales, Canney said.

Some of the donors were also saddened at how some of their higher-quality donations were displayed, crammed in the warehouse.

And the three couples who lead the effort agreed to take on the task only if it went back to the fairgrounds, she said.

There were some pluses to having it at the warehouse, she said. People who are unable to walk long distances found it easier to manage than at the fairgrounds.

And it saved on rent. The parish rents about half the fairgrounds for a week to put on the sale. Canney did not have the rent figure available, and fairgrounds executive manager Chris Unger declined to say, citing customer privacy. But according to its rent schedule, the 10 or so exhibition halls used rent for $495 to $1,440 a day for nonprofit groups. The fairgrounds typically charges that for the actual days of the event, and something less for the prep days, according to Unger.

The Barn Sale proceeds are used to pay down parish debt. It started 34 years ago as a way for St. John Neumann Catholic Church in St. Charles to pay for its facility. That parish had it for seven years, then the sale passed on to St. Peter for the next 10 years; it helped pay for renovations and additions. It moved to Holy Cross in Batavia for the next 10, with proceeds paying the debt for a new sanctuary and offices.

It hasn’t been held in a barn since St. Peters’ first stint. Holy Cross used tents. The sale started in a barn on the Regole farm in St. Charles. Gertrude Regole donated land for St. John Neumann parish.

During its first 10-year stint hosting the sale, St. Peter parish raised about $1 million.

Hundreds of volunteers work on the project, preparing the goods for sale. It also usually has a silent auction of antiques, vacation packages and other higher-ticket items, and sometimes new cars have been raffled off.

Items left over are donated to charities.

To donate items to the sale, visit stpeterchurch.com and click on “Barn Sale,” or call (630) 232-0124, ext. 310. The next donation date is March 26.