Prince George, B.C. – Salmon Valley residents are holding a big community-wide garage sale and fundraising event today and are inviting all area residents to take a drive out and have a look.

To be precise, twenty families are holding individual garage sales along and just off Salmon Valley Road from 9 am to 3 pm.  As well, tables will be set up and there will be a concession stand and flee market at the Salmon Valley Gymkhana Grounds.

The concession, selling burgers, hot dogs, fries, muffins, assorted beverages and ice cream, will be open from 9 am to 1:30 pm.  Organizers and volunteers for the community event will also be serving breakfast from 9 until 10:30 and then they’ll switch to a lunch menu which will be available from 10:45 this morning until  1:30 in the afternoon.

Vice-president of the Salmon Valley Community Association, Jeanne Hagreen, says there is a $5 fee for each table in the garage sale.  That money plus partial sales from the concession stand will be going to fund future community projects and events.

Hagreen says the association funds things like kids’ parties for Christmas, Easter and Halloween.  And with the closure of Salmon Valley Elementary school (in 2010)  and the community hall/curling rink, the organization is looking at coming up with the money to build a new covered outdoor gathering place.

She says funds raised today will go specifically toward offsetting some of the cost of having uniform signage with the number of each house at the end of their driveway to aid first responders who are answering emergency calls.  Hagreen says “you need them to match and be visible above the level of the snow in winter.  They need to be large numbers, reflective, so when the fire department or ambulance are looking for you they can find you” without delay.

She says the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George “has given us some prototype ideas, but then we have to go out and look to see who is actually prepared to help us create them.”