EC-SAR Yard Sale

EC-SAR (Eckerd College Search and Rescue) is what drew Lainey to Eckerd College in St. Petersburg and how we discovered Isla Del Sol Yacht and Country Club. 

Eckerd College is on the bay and has multiple water activities for it’s student.  The search and rescue team was formed in 1979 to provide safety services for these activities.  By 1977, EC-SAR was able to give rescue services to the Tampa Bay boating community. In 1980 it was one of the first units to respond to the Sky Bridge disaster.  It has grown into a highly respected organization on the west coast of Florida. 

The students who volunteer for this program are trained in technical rescue, boating safety, seamanship, searching, fire fighting,  navigation, medical response, and piloting rescue vessels. The services EC-SAR provide the community are completely free.  Every year EC-SAR has a gigantic marine yard sale to fund the services they provide.  The students reach out to the community for donations to the yard sale, they display, price and work the yard sale that is held the Saturday before their spring break each year.  

We arrived at 8:50 to find a line of about 200 people waiting to get inside.  The students  had been there all night guarding the merchandise, setting up and getting ready for the sale.

The guy with the funny hat was announcing how to purchase raffle tickets.  He called out a winner about every half hour.  He also worked the music for the shoppers enjoyment.

It was a great day to buy a windsurfer–

Or a lifejacket

Or a pair of boots…

Or a kneeboard…

or tennis rackets…

or a pair of folding bikes by Dahon!!!

We bought these folding bikes because they are easier to store than the bikes we had on board.  One needs a little work, but hey–that’s just another project for Steve on a rainy day.  

The sale brought in $50,000 for the team. 

Joy