By Shari Kaplan
The Los Gatos Police Department's second annual rummage sale April 27 and 28 netted about $3,300, said LGPD Community Service Officer Gwen Cross, who organized the event.
"It was definitely successful. The VIPs [Volunteers in Policing] pretty much ran the whole thing, and reserve officers helped with security," Cross said. "The volunteers that worked on this project spent several hundred hours getting it all together."
"It's nice to see people willing to take time out to help with something like this."
Proceeds go toward uniforms, equipment and training for the volunteers, who in the past year have increased in number from 19 to more than 50. They assist police personnel with clerical duties, data entry, answering phones, patrol checks, investigative work and community events, including the rummage sale and last Halloween's Haunted Forest fundraiser.
Crime prevention programs, the volunteer-run Disaster Aid Response Team and the reserve police officers also benefited from rummage-sale proceeds. The Los Gatos Police Explorers, a volunteer community service program for teenagers, raised its own funds through a car wash held Sunday in conjunction with the rummage sale.
Among the bestselling items, Cross said, were clothing, especially baby clothes and accessories, linens, kitchenware and general knickknacks. The police department donated all leftovers to Goodwill. The next big fundraiser will be the second annual Haunted Forest, scheduled for October.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 15, 1996.
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