Sara Fortin and her boyfriend Robert Mehr explore their new home of western Massachusetts by hopping in their car and driving from neighborhood to neighborhood, searching for yard sales, tag sales, estate stales, any type of local market with concealed treasures.

“We joke he’s shopping to sell and I’m shopping to keep,” Fortin said, adding that Mehr likes to flip vintage electronics and video games while she fills her home with antique kitchenware and decor. The couple resells their findings on eBay and even recently at a local flea market. But this time, they won’t have to travel very far to find hidden gems. 

On Aug. 9 through 11, Belchertown will host a community-wide yard sale with sellers in various neighborhoods from all four corners of town. Households will sell collectibles, antiques, school supplies, wood stoves and even a motor cycle in their yards, and shoppers will traverse the 55.4 square mile town to look for goods. Local businesses are partnering with the event by offering discounts to sale shoppers. All the profits will go to Better Together Dog Rescue, a New England-based dog rescue that provides dog owners in difficult financial or personal situations with supplies and pet care.

“It’s not just (about) people making money, not just the rescue, getting funds and donations and being on people’s radars but exposing hidden treasures that I assume many people in Belchertown know about but very few discover and take the time to find,” event organizer Kris Lynds said.

Lynds hatched the idea for the Belchertown Community Yard Sale from his own involvement and attendance at yard sales in the past. He remembers organizing a yard sale for the YMCA with his friend and musician Jamie Kent 20 years ago, and realized that community-building, both within and outside of town line, is inherit in these kinds of events.

“(Belchertown) has a lot of travel through traffic,” Lynds said. “People stop to get gas to see us as the town between Amherst and Springfield, but I want everyone to have eyes on the community.”

Belchertown is a residental-heavy area, with most citizens traveling north to Amherst or south to Springfield for employment. As a result, the small businesses in Belchertown often hide under the radar, which Lynds wanted to remedy by including local businesses into the mix.

“Belchertown is very community oriented and everyone is always promoting local business on online, and so why not get the word out together beyond just residents,” Lynds said.

 So far, Antonio’s Pizza, Florence Savings Bank, Town Mart and Village Package are some of the eight businesses that have already registered to offer deals on the day of the event. Antonio’s Pizza, for instance, will offer special combos on the back of their menu at a discounted rate so hungry shoppers can chow down on pizza and chicken wings. 

“I think it just gets our name out there, and the yard sale hopefully brings in people from other towns who hopefully learn about us,” Manager at Antonio’s Pizza Kim Pacheco said.

Currently 25 households have signed up to participate in the event, but Lynds gets more applications each day. Kathy Maroney moved to Belchertown from North Carolina a year ago because of it’s central location between the two colleges her daughters attend. While Maroney thought she did a good job selling her old items at a yard sale prior to the move, her 1,500-square-foot basement is packed to the brim with boxes. 

“My neighbor and I talked about it. I moved from a bigger house to a smaller house and now I have a basement full of stuff that I don’t have room for,” Maroney said. “So I was like lets do the yard sale, we’ll do it together and maybe we will get some traffic down here between our houses.”

Unused golf sets, china sets, a doll house and room decor from her daughters are just some of the items in Maroney’s collection. She hopes to sell enough of her items to clear out her basement so she can turn the floor into an oil painting studio. 

“Plus I know the yard sale is benefiting the dog rescue and that’s really meaningful to us too,” Maroney said. “We have two dogs and they’re very friendly, they’d be very excited if people were coming in. We see our pets as our family members.”

For new Belchertown residents like Maroney and Fortin, the event opens their doors to fellow western Massachusetts community members and, hopefully, new friends. 

“I think it's a great way to get Belchertown involved and get to know other people in the community and also tour the town a bit more,” Fortin said. “I moved here almost a year ago and there's' still parts of Belchertown I haven’t seen yet so I look forward to shopping, following the map and finding new areas of town.”

Registration to participate in the yard sell is open until Aug. 1 and requires a donation of $15 for households and $50 for businesses.

More than raising money for charity and promoting local small businesses, Lynds hopes shoppers discover the beauty of Belchertown.