Relay for Life fund raiser offers bargains
Teachers at Gulf Elementary hosted a flea market at the school on Saturday afternoon to benefit the 2009 Relay for Life at Ida S. Baker High. The relay in March 2009 raises funds for the American Cancer Society.
Off of the school’s bus ramp, the flea market featured half a dozen tables selling dishes, glassware, old videos, board games and holiday wreaths. Cape Coral students were holding a car wash and teachers Pam Lynch and Nancy Singleton sold donated baked goods.
Lynch said she was surprised at a lower turnout for the flea market that is in its second year off of Chiquita Boulevard.
“We were surprised at the lower turnout,” she said. “Things we’ve done for the relay have done well. I don’t know what we could’ve done differently.”
The event’s lower turnout may have had something to do with many Cape Coral residents having less disposable income or that people didn’t know it was happening on Saturday.
Proceeds from the bake sale and car wash went directly to relay funds and each of the vendors had to pay a rental fee for their booth at the school. Publix was one supplier that donated some baked goods and the “I Like It Like That Bakery” in Cape Coral donated a box of pumpkin bread.
Overall, there was fewer than 100 people who attended the flea market from 8 a.m. to around noon when many of the vendors began closing.
“We did OK; we would’ve liked to see a larger crowd,” said Angel Fiore, a vendor at the flea market and teacher at Gulf Elementary. “We had less than 100 throughout the morning.”
The event offered coffee and donuts for 50 cents in the morning and hotdogs for lunch at 11:30 p.m. The Gold Diggers were also purchasing unused gold jewelry.
“As long as everyone has the mentality that they haven’t lost money and the relay is gaining money than it is a good thing,” said Lynch.