Elgin's Ecker Center to hold 'Sale of Sales' fundraiser
Sitting in her office, surrounded by piles of donated home goods of all shapes and sizes, Kay Catlin was in her element.
The fundraising manager at Ecker Center for Behavioral Health says her spare-time hobby is buying, refurbishing and then selling antiques and other items.
"It's my sport," Catlin said.
After the center in Elgin came into a large donation of household items, Catlin had an idea.
"Here I'm the fundraising manager, but I have a guerrilla mentality," she said. "If it doesn't move and it's not alive, I'll find a way to sell it."
The way she plans to sell it is with what the Ecker Center is calling a "Sale of Sales" on Saturday, April 17. The event is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the center's parking lot at 1845 Grandstand Place in Elgin.
Catlin said the event is more like an estate sale than a rummage sale, with antiques, furniture, lamps, Christmas decorations, original art and myriad types of home decor.
Catlin's road to the sale started when the center received a houseful of donations from an Elgin resident about to move to Tennessee. Lesli Hopwood had reached out to Catlin in hopes of decorating a Christmas tree for one of Ecker's annual fundraisers, but things evolved as Hopwood decided to move and downsize.
"I thought what a great thing it is that they're doing here, helping so many people cope with life, and I thought maybe they have some clients that could use furniture," Hopwood said.
Catlin told her the story of a female client who had only a mattress and nightstand in her apartment. Hopwood was touched to hear that her couch, dresser and mirror went to the woman.
"I was so blessed that I wanted to offer all the rest of the things that I was going to take to Goodwill to Ecker," she said.
Most of the rest of the more than 500 items in the sale came from donations from the 150 staff members of the Ecker Center.
"Everybody has something they want to get rid of," Catlin said, adding that the timing was just right when sending out the call for help. "With lots of the people at home because of the pandemic, they were reorganizing and purging stuff they wanted to get rid of. It's all usable stuff."
While she doesn't have a money goal in mind, Catlin said she hopes the sale will help make up for a lost year of event fundraising in 2020.
Not counting corporate grants and the like, Ecker Center, which provides crisis intervention services for individuals who are experiencing a psychiatric crisis, usually raises $75,000 to $100,000 a year with events or direct mail pleas.
"That may not sound like much," she said, "but take $100,000 from any nonprofit, and it's noticeable."