CHESTERVILLE — The Chesterville Center Union Meeting House met its fundraising goal with a yard sale on Saturday, June 1, at the meeting house located at 3 Borough Road. Robert Rogers, chairmen of the board of directors for the meeting house, shared the funds are being used to finish painting the exterior of the building.

On the lawn of the meeting house tables with various knick-knacks, odds and ends and a few antiques were available for sale from 9 a.m. to 3 in the afternoon. According to Rogers, most the items up for sale were donated by the board of directors, but they also received donations from friends and family members that were moving and looking to clean out their garage in the process.

“A lot of it came from folks that were moving,” he said.

This included items like a 1959 Singer sewing machine, a bicycle, a variety of vinyl records, puzzles, DVDs, chairs, tables, and a dresser. One lucky shopper managed to get their hands on a vintage No. 4 Kodak Studio Camera, which was patented in 1897 according to Rogers.

“It’s definitely from before World War I,” he said. Though it was no longer operational, the customer said he was going to gift it to his daughter, who is going to college in Maine to be cinematographer.

“She loves collecting these things,” he shared.

Some items also saw a little bit of restoration, like an antique box cradle.

“We like to repurpose things when we can if we have time,” Rogers said. “The top of the vintage cradle was from the Transfer Station, and I put a new bottom on it. I repaired the cracks and the damage along the bottom.”

He also added the rockers on the bottom of the cradle were new as well, making them from walnut that he recovered from the Transfer Station as well.

“We’re really not supposed to take things from the Transfer Station,” he said, “but in this case, it was just gonna go on the burn pile.”

Rogers shared the fundraising goal was $1,200, which he said was more than surpassed based on the turnout they had in the early morning. The funds will be used to offset the cost of painting the remainder of the exterior walls on the meeting house.

“We’ve done the painting in stages, and probably 80% of the funding has come from grants,” he said, stating that the organization is a 501(c) nonprofit, which qualifies them for several grants for this project.

“We qualify for grants, and we try to give back to the community in return,” he said. “That’s why we have low-cost events and we hope that people come and enjoy the building and enjoy the events.”