BETHLEHEM, Pa. — It’s Boutique time again!
Make the right turn onto Illick's Mill Road from Schoenersville Road and you'll spot it. The pink, black and white splashy sign advertising the annual and beloved Boutique at the Rink.
The department store-style pop-up sale marks its 48th this year, and donations arrived by the carful Saturday morning at the Earl E. Shaffer Municipal Ice Rink in Bethlehem.
Volunteers unloaded boxes and bags of donated new or gently used clothing, housewares, toys and sporting goods into shopping carts and wheeled them into the rink's lobby where more volunteers sorted them.
“We don't keep anything that's not perfect,” said Carol Jacoby, part of a five-member leadership team organizing the event.
“Nothing but the cream of the crop.”
Sale proceeds are split between the Cancer Support Community of the Greater Lehigh Valley, St. Luke's Cancer Center, and St. Luke's Hospice.
Last year it earned a record $311,000.
Jacoby said more than 300 volunteers help bring the sale to life.
“They don't come all at once, of course, and we can always use more people.”
After just a few hours of donations, Lynne Rush already had entire sets of golf clubs, scuba and snorkeling gear and camping items organized onto a variety of shelving and tables.
Rush, of Bethlehem, helps so she can give back to the Cancer Support Community, one of three recipients of the event's proceeds.
"That place. It changes people."Lynne Rush, breast cancer survivor and volunteer
10 years ago, Rush was diagnosed with papillary breast cancer at age 50. She beat it, but it was the aftermath of emotions that became the burden.
“You do what you have to do to get through it, and then, 'What just happened? Whoa, this was crazy,'” she said.
Rush, a retired health and physical education teacher in Phillipsburg, said her partner could tell she needed something.
“She said, 'you're going to the Cancer Support Community, and that's it. No argument.' So I did.”
Rush got involved with the yoga, meditation, healthy cooking, Tibetan bowl vibration and other classes the Cancer Support Community of the Lehigh Valley, located at 944 Marcon Blvd. in Allentown, offers.
“That place. It changes people,” Rush said.
She was so affected by the experience, she took a neighbor who was battling leukemia there to perk her up.
“She lost all her hair, and she couldn't go anywhere for 60 days. I took her to their wig shop, and they gave her a wig and did a makeover on her, and she was like a new woman,” said Rush, with tears in her eyes.
“They're just incredible. We are forever dedicated to them, and we spend our whole month of May here (at the Boutique), plus helping at their other events during the year.”
It's Nina Metzler's third year as a Boutique volunteer.
Metzler spent 20 years as a St. Luke's hospice nurse, a career that found her later in life after she lost a brother to AIDS and saw the impact hospice care made.
“It helps them live, helps them have the best quality of life for as far as they live,” she said. “They don't have to be homebound.”
Tom Wolseed got his steps in for the day and then some, pushing carts of goods into the inspection area and then going back outside for more.
“My wife talked me into this, but I don't mind,” he laughed.
Barb Molseed is a 24-year cancer survivor.
“I got lucky. And if you walk up to any volunteer here, you'll find a lot of survivors,” she said.
“Keeping busy, staying active, gardening, it all helps.
“And volunteering.”
Donations can be dropped off at the Earl E. Schaffer Municipal Ice Rink, 345 Illick’s Mill Road in Bethlehem every day except Sundays between May 3-May 17 at the following times:
- Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Sale days are:
- Tuesday, May 28, Premiere Night, 3-8 p.m. ($20 entry fee to shop this night)
- Wednesday, May 29, Full-price Day, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
- Thursday & Friday, May 30 and 31, Half-price Day, 10 a.m.- 8 p.m.
- Saturday, June 1, Bag Day, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Accepted are new and gently used vintage and fine clothing, accessories, shoes, lingerie, jewelry, toys, linens, housewares, antiques, collectibles, and sports equipment.
Not accepted are furniture, computers, luggage, electronics or books.
