The Barn had barely closed a few weeks ago, when folks started asking us how soon pickups would begin in the spring. It’s nice to be missed.

And it’s a great opportunity to explain how the Barn evolved. To do that, we need to go back in time to 1958, when the Boothbay Center PTA began Lobster Time, an opportunity to purchase a lobster roll and support schools. At some point the PTA asked the Rotary Club to take over the event, and gradually, the lobsters were augmented by a flea market and informal auction organized by Brud Pierce, Boothbay Harbor’s immortal Hot Dog King. (If you don’t believe me, check out the plaque in Brud’s honor on the sidewalk at the southwest corner of Townsend Avenue and Oak Street.) 

In 1993, Robert L. Foster took over the auctioneering, greatly increasing both our revenue and the fun. And gradually, the food concession became less and less important as income from the auction and assorted tents took center stage.  For several decades, Rotarians picked up stuff all year long, then stored it in members’ garages and basements and attics. The need to move things multiple times (and always up and down stairs) grew stale, and in 2016, Mike Thompson led the initiative to build a storage barn at our property at 66 Montgomery Road. The club didn’t have a clue how prescient that move would prove to be. 

Meanwhile, the Auction grew. It outgrew the Boothbay Common – not enough parking – and so it moved to the high school field. It outgrew one tent and then two, and eventually, we created special tents for Tools; Children; Books; a Lets-Make-a-Deal section for the furniture too, umm, tired for the auction; and the Boutique for priced items. Every time we created a new tent, the income of the flea market held firm – and the total take for the auction grew by a few thousand dollars. By 2019, we Rotarians had the Auction down to a science and that year, we netted $50,000.   

Then came the pandemic. Clearly, we could not hold a large, public event in 2020. Yet our local charities needed the income even more than ever. It was Debbie Graves who came up with the idea of cleaning up the Barn, setting a mask mandate, and opening up on Saturdays. We hoped that we could make at least half of the previous year’s net by keeping the Barn open throughout the summer months. 

Maybe it was a lack of other things to do during the pandemic; maybe it was that home-bound let’s-clean-out-the-house mentality.  Whatever the reason, the Rotary barn transformed itself from a one-day event into a resounding community center throbbing with life and laughter on Saturday mornings. And our income grew! That first year we netted over $100,000 from Barn sales; the numbers have held firm at around $80,000 each year since (and are on track to do the same in fiscal 2025-26).   

The Barn offers us the opportunity to organize, price, and make decisions that often involve Treasure Island, our name for the Transfer Station. And as we figured out what sold best, we made some strategic changes: We quickly stopped selling books, for example.  At the one-day event, books had attracted their own buyers, who then sometimes stayed for the Auction. But at the Barn, with as many customers coming as our mask mandate would allow, the idea of selling heavy books for only $1 apiece quickly lost its appeal.   

On the other hand, the Boutique rapidly proved its worth, and the result was an addition to the Barn to provide enough room to showcase everything from alabaster eggs to a zebra-skin rug.  

All the money is plowed back to the community. Not a penny supports the Rotary Club itself; instead, it is placed in our nonprofit Boothbay Harbor Rotary Foundation and then donated to those in need. A cool 85 percent stays here in the region; 15 percent is directed to our international charities. 

So come down and join us! We will start pickups in March and the Barn will be open the first Saturday in April, weather permitting. Be part of the opportunity to turn trash into treasure. And know that you are part of a community tradition that goes back almost 60 years.