Sunday’s ‘Community Tag Sale’ at Rockwell, arranged by parents of Bristol students, to benefit Agape House

Volunteers promoting the Community Tag Sale earlier this year at Stop & Shop when they passed out flyers for the event. Chantal Morais, from left, Dulce Bravo, Paul Albert and Jennifer St. John. | Bristol FRC

Posted By: David Fortier May 18, 2024

A Community Tag Sale, benefitting Agape House will be held Sunday, May 19, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Rockwell Park.

“As a group, we wanted to create a project that would benefit many and we couldn’t think of a place that deserves it more than The Agape House,” said Jennifer St. John, who is part of a group of local parent-students who just graduated in April from a University of Connecticut class called “People Empowering People.”

“This is our first year for the event,” St. John said, “but we hope to make it an annual event.” 

The Community Tag Sale is a project that was developed by St. John and several others who are all parents with students in Bristol schools, St. John said in a series of emails. The others include Chantel Morais, Dulce Bravo, Rebecca Rodriguez, Normaris Ramirez, Paul Albert and Will Gutierrez.

They are led by two facilitators, Hillary Kalahan and Gail Zimmerman, who are part of the Bristol Family Resource Center (Bristol FRC). Bristol FRC has a presence in South Side, West Bristol Greene-Hills and Edgewood Pre-K Academy.

From left, Hillary Kalahan, Chantal Morais, Dulce Bravo, Will Gutierrez, Jennifer St. John, Normaris Ramirez, Rebecca Rodriguez, Paul Albert and Gail Zimmerman pose on Tuesday, April 30 with their certificates from the “People Empowering People” course graduation. | Bristol FRC

“As part of the class we were tasked with developing a community project,” St. John said. “This Community Tag Sale is the result.”

The classes were held in the afternoons at the Edgewood Pre-K Academy from January through March earlier this year. Participants have for their goal wanting to learn and grow and stay connected within the community, St. John said.

On Sunday, there will be more than 25 sellers at the community tag sale and over 36 parking spaces filled with all sorts of items for sale, she said.

“For some sellers, this is their only opportunity to have a tag sale,” she said. “Some people are using it as an estate sale and will have small furniture items and home goods for sale. For others it is a chance to show off their talents as we have a few vendors signed up for spaces to sell as well like a baker, a 3D printer and beauty cosmetics.”

In addition to the sellers, Making Bristol Better, a collaboration between the Bristol Early Childhood Alliance and the Bristol School Readiness Council, will also be there handing out free books to kids. St. John belongs to both groups.

The goal of Making Bristol Better is to help promote early learning and school readiness in young children as well as sharing fun enriching activities for families to partake in, she said. The group promotes reading and provide free books to children in the community.

“We can’t thank the community partners enough for helping to make this event possible,” St. John said. “Matthew Norton and the Agape House team have been beyond wonderful to work with and we’re so happy to help them in their journey.  

Agape House is a local organization dedicated to providing support and assistance to those in need within our community.

Greer’s Chicken, JD’s Fusion and Peter’s Ice Cream will be donating 10 percent of their sales to the project which has now raised just over $1,000. Donations will also be accepted on Sunday.

Donors include Aroma Joe’s, who contributed coffee, and True Value who supplied the table and chairs.

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