One longtime Verona resident is earning her wings as she’s working with three other women to help bring back one of the Madison area’s largest second-hand sales events, the Attic Sale.

The Attic Sale is one of three “signature sales” held as fundraisers for the Attic Angel Community, but like so many events critical to funding nonprofits, the sale was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.

Julie Reneau is one of four co-chairs overseeing the return of the sale, which has become so well-known it now has people lined-up outside beforehand and customers come from as far away as Chicago. There have been as many as 800 customers during the annual sale.

Items for sale include household decorations, art, statues, plates and dishes, linens, towels, quilts, blankets, new and used appliances, board games, puzzles, vacuum cleaners, sporting equipment books (strictly kids’ books and cookbooks), artificial flower arrangements, furniture, antiques, and mid-century modern items.

“I only wish I had known about this sale when I was setting up my household or when my kids moved,” Reneau said. “As a mother of three, I was out looking at garage sales for bargains when my kids were setting up their apartments. You can’t find things this nice in most places. A lot comes from people’s cottages or second homes. Everything is priced to sell.”

Reneau is a 27-year resident of Verona, though that is broken up into two residencies. She moved to Ohio in 2004 and returned to Verona eight years later in 2012. She worked as an administrator in the Wisconsin Retirement System and later worked for the State public pension system

After she retired, she took a year off, but then began seeking something to do with her newfound free time. She also wanted a way to connect with other women in the area.

Her husband’s aunt was a longtime Attic Angel, a volunteer position whose efforts “focus on serving the living and health care needs of Attic Angel Community residents,” its website states.

At Attic Angel, Reneau has found the community she was looking for and has been a volunteer for four years.

“I was looking for friendships with women in the area and found a lot of good people here,” she said. “The people who come to volunteer here want to be here, it’s a joy, it’s always pleasant, and the residents love it, too.”

More than 500 volunteer Angels provide approximately 35,000 hours of service annually, according to the organization’s website. Reneau has personally put in about 150 hours so far this year, she said.

As a career woman who had spent years in the world of administration, Reneau said initially she was unsure about volunteering for the organization, but she had heard her husband’s aunt share many positive experiences and her aunt-in-law “always seemed so happy” to work at the annual fundraising sales and with the residents of the Attic Angel communities. So, Reneau decided to take a tour of the Middleton campus.

“Attic Angel is so amazingly organized,” she said. “It takes a certain personality to volunteer there. You have to love working with people and groups, it’s not just a drop-in thing, you’re committing your time.”

Teamwork makes the dream work

After her tour and initial meeting in 2018, Reneau, like all Attic Angel volunteers, became a member of that year’s “class,” a structure meant to provide volunteers with camaraderie.

In 2018 and 2019, she worked at the Attic Sale as an “intern,” helping unpack items to be sold and working at the check-out.

While she said becoming a member of the sale’s steering committee initially seemed daunting as she’d only previously been a salesperson, there are well-documented notes from previous years to guide the committee.

“You don’t have to make all decisions, they have all been made before, just check with those who have worked before, check with the experts,” Reneau said.

Other more seasoned Angels also make it easy to reach out to them for advice, Reneau said.

Her husband’s aunt is still an active angel herself, and recently marked 45 years of service.

“I feel like a novice at four years,” Reneau said.

There are different teams that oversee different areas of the sale – the linens, household items, “treasures,” and silver and jewelry areas of the sale all have dedicated teams, many who have worked together at the sale for years and have a keen sense of what will sell and what won’t.

Other areas of the sale, such as the kids’ toys, only have one person behind the scenes.

There’s a signage and maps team. There’s a hospitality team just to feed the volunteering Angels. There’s a team for publicity and newsletters.

The volunteers are particularly choosy about only putting out for sale new or gently-used items, and they meticulously check everything donated for damage or wear, Reneau said.

“The items are in high-quality shape, or we don’t offer them for sale,” she said. “We’re judicious in what we keep.”

Reneau is joined on the Attic Sale steering committee by another Verona resident, Cindy Waldbillig, though she said they did not know each other prior to being paired-up. The other two volunteers live in Madison, but are both transplants – one is originally from England, the other one moved to the area from Austin, Texas.

The set-up process is a 12-hour day that begins before 7 a.m. helping the hired movers, before a caravan of volunteers move the more fragile items in their own vehicles.

While she said she believes people are eager to come buy, and anxious to see what all is for sale after a two-year hiatus -- 900 people are on their email list, and 1,200 request reminder postcards – it’s been challenging to get enough volunteers to return this year, Reneau said.

There are 80 packers who prepare the items to be moved to the sale at the Keva Sports Center in Middleton, and there are 150 volunteers who work the two-day sale, helping unpack and reshuffle items.

“COVID-19 fear is still a reality,” she said. “But it has become a part of our reality in life, and we’re following the health protocols and vaccinations, so we’re moving full steam ahead.”

AtticAngel5

Attic Angel volunteers work in the afternoon of May 23 to prepare items for the upcoming Attic Sale, set for June 3-4.

Spreading their wings

Beyond the trio of annual signature sales, Reneau and other Attic Angel volunteers participate in a wide variety of volunteer activities.

They helped accompany Attic Angel residents to the quarantined visitors’ area so they could see family members during the pandemic, they deliver mail to residents’ rooms, they fulfill book requests from the library, take residents grocery shopping or to other stores, transport residents to activities such as concerts or religious services, make flower arrangements with residents, and act as overall caregivers and become a part of residents’ social lives.

Volunteers have even served as waiters and baristas during Attic Angel happy hours, or in the café.

“The residents have endless desires and needs, that is what makes it so special, “ Reneau said. “I talk to residents and learn a lot about them. I get more out of working with them than they get from me. I always walk out of volunteering feeling fulfilled. It helps relieve and free up the Attic Angel staff.”

The fundraising sales in part support the residents at Attic Angel so that they can continue to receive care even if they can no longer afford it. However, the majority actually goes to services in Dane County such as helping housing insecure families with small children. Past years have addressed food insecurity, and mental health services.

Following the sale, Attic Angel doesn’t want anything back that didn’t sell. Other area nonprofits such as Open Doors for Refugees, Jewish Family Services, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, and Agrace are invited to come collect leftover items.

“While we wish we had multi-millions of dollars to give away, I think that ‘give what we can from what we receive’ says it all,” Reneau said. “People don’t have to do this, you don’t have to encourage them, they want to do it. You can count on the volunteers to do as they say they’ll do, you don’t have to worry. For me, I have always been a doer. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

Even Reneau’s husband has even gotten involved.

The Attic Angels have a small men’s auxiliary who help with moving large items during the sales and drive a bus to take people from the sale to a parking area.

Reneau says that at the end of her three-year commitment to the Attic Sale committee, she plans to step back and take a break so that she and her husband can fulfill some travel plans they have been putting off, before their health declines.

“Retirement allows you a lot more freedom to pick and choose what you want to do, this was a choice,” Reneau said. “My husband dreamed of driving buses when he retired. He just loves it, and they just love him at Attic Angel. I always enjoyed packing for the sales and meeting people that way. It’s fun to laugh together, to work together.”

Reporter Neal Patten can be reached at npatten@wisconsinmediagroup.com

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