A Belleville, Ont., comedian is hoping to set the world record for most garage sales in one day this weekend, and he is not joking around about it.
Kyle Woolven says when he first thought of the idea of turning his community into a massive garage sale, no one took him seriously, which he says was understandable given his profession.
“I had to go to like the higher-ups in the city, all the well-connected city council type people, and I explain my idea there, and then it took one person (to say), ‘That’s not a bad idea, we should try and do something like that.’”
On July 19, the community will aim to set a Guinness World Record for the greatest number of yard sales.
While there does not appear to be an official Guinness World Record yet, there is an annual event in the United States called The 127 Yard Sale, which claims to be the world’s longest yard sale, crossing six states at 690 miles.
“People can’t help but love yard sales. If they see one, they get this urge to go and stop at it, even though most of the stuff there they don’t want, or they have already at home, but when you see a yard sale, you go, ‘Oh yeah, cool, come on, what do they have over there?’” Woolven says.
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The comedian says he thinks people love yard sales so much because they give you “a glimpse at all the mistakes that people have made over the years.”
He goes on to say you can “look at all their stuff and then be like, ‘Oh my goodness, you bought like two of those singing bass fish that hang on the wall things?’ I’ll give you $3.50 for those.”
Woolven is hoping for at least 500 yard sales. So far, at least 350 have officially registered.
People can register online at the Bellville yard sale website. People will be out on the day of the event tracking the number of participants.
Record aside, Woolven says his true motivations are for a good cause, with all the money raised going to support the United Way Hastings and Prince Edward County.
Through that, Woolven said the money will be distributed to local organizations that need it most.
“Last year, Bellville declared a state of emergency because we had a string of large number of overdoses very quickly and we didn’t have the means to handle it all … so there’s lots of people in the city that are in need and this money just goes directly to them.”
Those interested in joining in on the fun can visit Belleville on Saturday to see what can be found.
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