Heartworks Holding Annual Yard Sale on Friday and Sat.

The Heartworks Foundation, a Basking Ridge-based "Acts of Kindness" organization created by a Bernardsville woman after 9-11, will hold its annual fundraising yard sale between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Friday and Saturday, at Heartworks House, 19 Morristown Road (Route 202). 

Dozens of Heartworks members will roll up their sleeves to organize, operate, and clean up after the yard sale at the building right at the Bernardsville and Bernards Township border.

More than 75 families have donated thousands of items to the sale, including new or gently used furniture, sporting goods, decorative accents, books, toys, and tools. There also will be jewelry and accessories and several large items such as playsets available.

Since its inception, the annual sale has raised $65,000 to give to people struggling with trauma, according to information from Heartworks.

“The proceeds from our annual yard sale go directly to local families living in crisis,” said Heartworks Assistant Director Holly Fay. “This is an incredible opportunity to find some great deals while helping those who are living with a medical or life-altering hardship.”

Heartworks helps individuals and also performs such thoughtful gestures as providing a meal to local veterans who raise and lower the flag at the Bernardsville post office on the week of Memorial Day. The organization held a candlelight vigil last December after the school shootings in Newtown, Ct.

“Everyone can remember a time in their life when they felt hopeless. Heartworks reaches out to individuals and families experiencing that sense of isolation due to a personal tragedy or loss,” explained Founder and Executive Director Megan McDowell of Bernardsville.

Heartworks is a non-profit acts of kindness group created in response to the tremendous kindness that sustained so many affected families in the Somerset Hills area during the months and years following September 11, 2001.

The 501c3 was started in memory of McDowell’s brother-in-law and Basking Ridge resident John W. Farrell, who was killed while working at Sandler O’Neill in the World Trade Center. For further information or to make a donation, please visit the Heartworks website at www.njheartworks.org.