Entrepreneurship Club hosted its garage sale on Wednesday, April 26 at Kingsmen Park. Shoppers could buy the student vendors’ spare items, which included clothes, accessories and home goods, and they could pick between food and drinks from Passion Empanadas and Makenna Koffee. 

Entrepreneurship Club President Sharon Sanders said that because their club’s Flea Market was postponed multiple times due to rain, they were able to focus only on promoting the garage sale and look for vendors for a month. 

“16 student-vendors signed up,” Sanders said. “You didn’t have to be a small business for this event. We didn’t turn anyone down. We wanted as many people who could come to sell their products.” 

Sanders said that her goal when planning the event was for students to build connections with other students and share an interest in the same clothes or  interests. She said she also wanted to allow them an opportunity to have a spring cleaning and make some money. 

 “A future goal is to make the event bigger and have 20 or 30 students selling things,” Sanders said. “It can be more of a community event that people are looking forward to, like, ‘Hey, there’s going to be a garage sale, we should wait and sell at that.’”

First-year Fiona Cate, who was sipping a “Cabo San Lucas” from Makenna Koffee, said what makes this garage sale different from off-campus thrifting is that all the attendees and sellers are in the same age range.

“All the clothes are very unique and show what people think that other people will like, so it kind of brings out their own artistic sense and style,” Cate said. 

Cal Lutheran student Jamey Sinardi, who is graduating this semester, said it was really convenient to sell the clothes, house goods and toys she brought to the garage sale in order to raise money for her 18-year-old son’s graduation from Newbury Park High School.

“I’m an adult student, so I have acquired so much in my life, and I have an opportunity to get rid of it all really cheap to people who need it too? I think it’s a good idea,” Sinardi said.

Sinardi said that even though there is a stigma around garage sales, it is so important, especially as we head into a recession, to get the younger students to get used to upcycling clothes. 

Junior Talia Hutchins, who was shopping at the garage sale for beach and workout clothes, said that she thinks that hosting an event like this on campus is an awesome idea. 

“In class, we’re talking about how we can be more sustainable and reduce our carbon footprint,” Hutchins said. “Here, we’re not only saving money, but we’re helping out the environment and being as environmentally conscious as we can.”

Revi Gandleman, co-owner of Passion Empanadas, an Agoura Hills-based company that has a traveling food truck and does local deliveries, said the company offered a choice of either a pepperoni or cheese flatbread pizza, as well as a variety of empanadas.

“Some of the students remember us from the last time we were here and came back and said, ‘We love your empanadas.’ The reaction was good. We like this environment, it’s very well organized and works perfect for us. I’d like to come back,” Gandleman said.

This article was updated at 5:54 p.m. on May 2 to correct that Sinardi’s son is graduating from Newbury Park High School and that Sinardi is graduating from Cal Lutheran. We regret this error.