ST. ANDREWS, Man. — For the fifth year in a row, the St. Andrews community will come together to honour the wish and carry on the legacy of one of their own.
On May 27 and 28, The 5th Annual Garage Sale in Memory of Gracie and Gordon will take place at St. Andrews Community Centre.
The garage sale is a way for not just a family, but an entire community, to come together and honour the wish of seven year old Gracie Herntier-Clark.
Her grandmother, who raised her, said Gracie came up with the bright idea for a garage sale to help her schools music program five years ago.
“So, I said ok what do you need the money for? She said I need to buy instruments for the school,” Gracies Grandmother, Ana Herntier, said.
Herntier said that first year, they all woke up on a Saturday and found everything they could to sell in the house and hosted a garage sale on their front lawn and made $605.
Sadly, just before the next garage sale, Gracie was mauled to death by two dogs at a friend’s home.
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But, that didn’t stop the community from convincing the Herntier’s that they needed to still host the garage sale in Gracie’s honour.
As the years have gone by, the garage sale has gone from honouring the memory of Gracie to honouring the memories of both Gracie and her classmate Gordon, who died in a car crash a year after Gracie died.
“Those two little angels have brought everybody together. I think it was meant to be,” Herntier said.
The Herntier’s said the garage sale is about so much more than Gracie’s wish to help kids and help keep music alive. Now, the family said the garage sale is an annual event that brings the community out and brings children to a fun place where they don’t need their electronics.
“For a couple of hours every year, get them away from their cell phones and iPads and say come on I want to tell you a story. Bring them down, we’ll tell them the story,” Herntier said.
Herntier said the family is still putting an ask out for more gently used or new items for the garage sale and for new items for the silent auction.
But, whether they make 5 cents or $5,000, they said each year it’s never about the money and it’s always about the community engagement.
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