Community Yard Sale, 'Restaurant Day' Ideas Discussed

Is your home in desperate need of de-cluttering? If so, you might be interested to know that the Hellertown Borough Business Revitalization Committee is considering organizing a community-wide yard sale the day after Hellertown-Lower Saucon Community Day.

The yard sale, which would be held Sunday, Aug. 21, would need approval from Helletown Borough Council in order to happen. Participants would also need to pre-register for the event.  

The idea for a community-wide yard sale was discussed at the committee's Feb. 10 meeting, when volunteer members also talked about the possibility of organizing a Main Street sidewalk sale to coincide with the yard sale.

In order to gauge support among downtown business owners for the idea of a summer sidewalk sale, the committee hopes to distribute a survey to them this spring.

The survey would ask business owners to identify needs, solicit suggestions and rate various proposals for downtown revitalization initiatives.

The revitalization committee is also interested in tapping the potentially lucrative tourism market associated with the Philadelphia Eages' training camp, which is held near Hellertown each summer.

"We need to find a way to tap into that because it's right there," said Mary Himmelberger, Borough Business Revitalization Program Coordinator.

Committee member and local business owner Beverly Rosewicz suggested that the most likely potential draws for football fans visiting the Lehigh University training camp would be food, fuel, the Hellertown Historical Society, Flint Hill Farm in Upper Saucon Township and .

Rosewicz, whose family has owned Lost River Caverns for more than 80 years, said the attraction does draw visitors from Eagles training camp, particularly on hot days when a visit to a cool cave seems appealing.

In other business at the meeting, committee members discussed an idea to host "Restaurant Days" at the . 

Each Restaurant Day would feature a local restaurant owner offering food and samples to farmers' market patrons.

Farmers' market chairperson Shelley Goldberg said she has already approached one Hellertown restaurant owner who was supportive of the idea.

Since many restaurants have suffered from declining sales on account of bad winter weather, Goldberg noted that "this could be a way to help [them] regain [their] revenue."

"It'll be name recognition," she added.