Monson Legion yard sale pays big dividends

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    MONSON — For many years, one of the biggest fund-raisers for the Towne-Holmbom American Legion Post in Monson was the annual fishing derby. “We would get donations from local businesses to help out,” said Dick Hunt, who now serves as adjutant and treasurer of the veterans’ organization, “but many of them are gone now.”

    Instead of the fishing derby last year, the Legion hosted a giant yard sale and netted $900. A few weeks ago, however, the post held its second annual yard sale and made a $2,400 profit, more than twice as much as last year.
    So how did they do it? Hunt said that members kept their eyes out for local yard sales and asked the people holding them to consider donating their unsold items to the Legion. “We had some of our members with pickup trucks going all over town,” Hunt said. “They let us use space in the old Monson school gym and we filled the place.”
    One 6-year-old youngster donated $10 to the post “because he wanted to help out,” Hunt said, “and a member donated $100 that we raffled off.”
    The Towne-Holmbom Post is one of Maine’s smallest with 31 members, but Hunt said that it’s also one of the most active. “We usually have about half show up for meetings and even more when we have a special event,” he said.
    Money raised by the post goes to an annual scholarship for a Monson graduate of Foxcroft Academy, a Boys’ State scholarship and local charities. “We donate to food pantries, needy families and any worthy cause. Everything we take in goes right back to the community,” Hunt said.
    The Towne-Holmbom Post meets on the first Monday of the month at the United Church of Christ at 6 p.m., and Hunt said that there are many veterans in the area eligible for membership who may not know it.  “Stop in and we’ll talk about it,” Hunt said.
    He can be reached at 314-7374.