Second-hand items get new life during Garden Club flea market

Posted on March 31, 2020 By Editor Brooklyn, Downtown, Springfield, Neighborhood News, Riverside, Avondale, Ortega, Murray Hill, San Jose, San Marco, St. Nicholas

Members of the Ortega Forest Garden Circle: Freddie Walker, Anne Ellis, Mimi Barley, Eileen Ira and Candy Clark.

Thrifty Jacksonville residents teamed up with green-thumbed members of the Garden Club of Jacksonville to raise money for the club’s garden circle projects. There were tons of second-hand treasures to choose from both inside and outside during the Feb 29 event, from kitchenware to workwear, plates, electronics, artwork, jewelry and thousands of other items. Meanwhile, food trucks scented the air as shoppers walked into the club’s headquarters on Riverside Avenue.

From left, Belkis Sanchez, Christi Veleta, Becky Cox, Janet Chamberlain, and event chair Lauren Baxter, president of the Empire Point Garden Circle, participate in the Garden Club of Jacksonville’s Flea Market fundraiser.

While the event isn’t the chief fundraiser for the club as a whole, Flea Market Chair Lauren Baxter said it plays an important role in funding projects for the club’s smaller, local groups, which are called circles.

“The circles come and rent a table and sell what they want to sell. It’s the club’s way of helping them make money for their projects,” she explained.

Denise Reagan, Garden Club executive director, said the flea market was also a service to the community and to the environment.

“It’s how the circles make a good bit of their money for their projects,” Reagan explained. “It’s worth is that it diverts these items from the landfill. These are items that will not biodegrade until a couple of hundred years from new. Reuse and recycle is very important to our mission.”

The Club continues to be a self-supporting, nonprofit organization dedicated to education, beautification, and conservation citywide.