Published: June 08, 2008 10:05 pm         

NIE event believed to be record-setter

Vendors say new downtown park location brings in crowds

The new downtown location for a popular flea market and auction was being credited with possible record-setting crowds.

The James Word Memorial Park was packed Saturday for the 13th annual Newspapers in Education Flea Market and Auction. All proceeds raised from the event will support the Newspapers in Education program at Beckley Newspapers, said Carla Nelson, the circulation sales and marketing manager for The Register-Herald who oversees the NIE program. NIE brings newspapers to classrooms in Fayette, Raleigh, Summers, Greenbrier, Nicholas, Wyoming, Mercer and Monroe counties.

Nelson estimated 90 vendors participated in the flea market, likely a record number. Local businesses also donated 205 items for the auction, and Mid-State Pre-owned Vehicles donated three cars.

“It was a huge success,” she said. “Everyone enjoyed themselves, and we seemed to have more space.”

Nelson said she hopes next year’s flea market and auction will also take place at the park. The amount of money raised at the event was not available Saturday.

Bill and Mary Pat Baker, Stanaford Acres residents, were selling “a little bit of everything” at the NIE flea market for the first time Saturday. They thought the new location, just up the street from the Village Flea Market, gave both the NIE and Village Flea Market vendors a chance to attract each other’s patrons.

“It goes hand-in-hand,” Bill Baker said.

The two only sell items at flea markets a few times a year, usually when they want to “unload.”

“And it also gives other people the chance for bargains,” Bill Baker said. “We try not to sell stuff we wouldn’t have.”

“We’re very thankful for free enterprise. It’s what makes America great,” Mary Pat Baker said. “People can come and sell whatever they want.”

“It’s the American way,” Bill Baker said.

The Mountain State University chapter of the American Criminal Justice Association also set up a booth at the flea market. Missy Omar and Melanie Shepherd, the chapter’s president and vice president, respectively, said the money raised from selling their items would support students attending educational conferences. Next year, they noted, MSU could be hosting the Region IV American Criminal Justice Association conference, and they also worked to raise funds for that.

“We hope we can come here next year,” Omar said of the flea market and auction. “We’ve met a lot of good people, and we’ve had a lot of fun.”

Omar is also a volunteer with Raleigh County Animal Rescue, a no-kill rescue organization which places homeless pets in volunteer foster homes until they can be adopted. The criminal justice association shared its space with RCAR, and Omar brought two Malteses in the organization’s care with her. She said she wanted to also use the flea market as a way to educate the public about animal cruelty laws — particularly a relatively new law that forbids people from leaving pets in hot cars.

“It’s very important that people don’t do that — even with the windows cracked,” she said. “It can reach well over a couple hundred degrees inside a car. You do not want to put an animal or a child in that.”

Beaver resident Debbie Treadway and her daughter, Sarah Holloway, came to shop Saturday. They said they had been to the flea market and auction before, and they’re “definitely, bargain hunters.” However, Holloway says she’s a not die-hard flea market shopper because it involves braving heat and rising early on Saturdays.

“It’s too hot to go more than once a year,” Holloway said. “Nine a.m. is early enough for me.”

— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com