Miss Fannie's Yard Sale Provides Support To Aurora Women's Shelter

AURORA, IL — A community yard sale that benefits a local shelter for women who are victims of domestic and sexual assault and that is named after a longtime volunteer will take place this weekend, providing local residents with some bargain shopping that goes to a worthy cause.

The 16th annual Miss Fannie’s Yard Sale will take place from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and will take place outside the Mutual Ground shelter, which is located at 418 Oak St. Admission and parking are free for the yard sale, which raises more than $4,000 annually for the shelter and has raised more than $60,000 since it began.

Sale items include appliances, children’s clothing, shoes, toys, books and household items and also offers some free items. All transactions must be completed with cash. All proceeds from the yard sale goes to benefit Mutual Ground, which opened in Aurora in 1978 and that began offering counseling and advocacy services for domestic and sexual assault victims in 1983.

The shelter moved to its current location in 1997 before offering services in surrounding communities in 2015. The shelter offers 28 beds to women who need shelter while also providing other assault victims needed services.

Breaking Free, a Mutual Ground program that provides services for people struggling with substance abuse and addiction, runs out of a location at 120 Gale St. in Aurora.

The annual yard sale is named for Aurora resident Fannie Morrison, who has been volunteering at Mutual Ground in 1999 and who still volunteers two days a week at the shelter.

“Miss Fannie” maintains the shelter’s clothing closet, sorts through donations and organizes the annual yard sale. The shelter named its volunteer room after Morrison.

“This yard sale is an event that the community anticipates every year,” said Krystyna Sarrazin, the shelter’s volunteer coordinator. “It is the one time a year we invite the community into our campus, and they love to search for great deals and some freebies and (residents) know they are directly supporting Mutual Ground's mission.”