The brightly-colored price stickers and random housewares that lined the parking lot of a Hillsborough car dealership were just as varied as the personalities around them.
For the eighth consecutive year, the Historical Foundation of Hillsborough and Orange County hosted a garage sale Saturday to benefit the Orange County Historical Museum.
The museum relies heavily on fundraising to help cover an annual operating budget of roughly $70,000, of which the county only covers $4,000, said Linda Schmitt, a member of the foundation’s board of directors.
Organizers hoped to raise $1,400 for the museum’s general operating costs.
Greeted with shouts of, “We’re ready to wheel and deal!” and, “Put your hand on it, it’s sold!” from organizers, customers navigated through new and old items —exercise bicycles, rocking chairs, lamps — in a largely vacated car dealership lot on South Churton Street.
“There are some people who are antique stealers who have been here, and then there are people who just want everyday, usable stuff,” said Mary Ann Peter, chairwoman of the foundation’s board of directors.
After the June announcement of the Chapel Hill Museum’s closing, the Orange County Historical Museum is the last institution specifically designated to record the history and artifacts of the county.
Peter said a similar fate for the Orange County museum would be devastating.
“It would be the loss of telling the historical journey of Orange County, which started in the mid-1700’s,” Peter said. “We would lose the artifacts, we would lose the narrative, we would lose the heart of the story of Orange County.”
