Hi Readers,

The Lincoln Highway Buy-Way Yard Sales Tama was a shopper’s delight! Sales could be found along East Lincoln Highway , Highway 30, the Lincoln Highway Bridge Park and along 5th street Tama. On Thursday, August 7th at 8:00am, Toledo American Legion Post 72, Commander Elizabeth Ledvine welcomed all vendors, shoppers and volunteers to our event and to our two cities. Commander Ledvina, assisted by Tama American Leagion Post 73 Auxiliary Jennei Rank and Fraternal Order of Eagles Auxiliary Jean Dorn, raised the flag and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

We have vendors from Marshalltown, Vining, Gladbrook, Ladora, Atkins, Grinnell, Chelsea, Winterset, Gilman and Tama -Toledo selling at the Lincoln Highway Park.

Food vendors sold Maria’s Tacos, yummy yummy, Shoestring Garden sold brats and burgers with cool ice tea and lemonade, and the Lincoln Highway booth sold “Lincoln Dogs”. If you did not want the quarter pounded Lincoln Dog, you could get a “Naked Abe or a Little Linc” hot dog. Avery was our 1 Chef preparing these special hot dogs and oh wow were they ever good. Ask Ed Hardon, he visited us two days and ate our Lincoln Dog and said it was GREAT.

At Allan’s tent you could bargain and bargain and get a $1 buy and he sold the historical Lincoln Highway Banners. Dawn sold fresh produce, a lawn more and windows; Will sold Iowa and Iowa State bows and handcrafted soy candles; Sheryl’s ceramics and cute hand towels for the kitchen were a hi;, and Susan sold vintage items and bought my chair right out from under me! Anita had pretty self watering planters; there were T&J’s knives and flags; Joe’s wooden pepper mills; and homemade cookies and specialty coffees were sold at the Methodist church booth. You could find “Priced Right Treasures” at Doug’s booth; George had all kinds of yard sale items, sweet buys at the Sweet Repeats tent and 50% off at the Lincoln Highway fundraising tent.

There were yard sales along Lincoln Highway, 5th St. Tama, with great bargains for shopper. Miguel’s Storage, sold industrial appliances and dog kennels; Lana had table os clothing and odds and ends; Lisa had fabulous buys on her brand named purses; and Darrel sold antiques, yard decorations, and everything a shopper was looking for. Loran Perkins, on East Highway 30, enjoyed the many travelers that stopped and shopped and visited some till 9:30am.There were more vendors and folks with yards sale that I may have not written about, but we all had fun fun selling and fun fun days of shopping. Great job by all, lets do it again!

At the Park, DJ, Mooseman Productions, entertained us for 3 days with 50’s, 60’s, 70’s. and the music of 2014. On Friday from 3-5pm he played Poka music and Big Band songs from the 30’s thru the 50’s. People were singing along, dancing and moving to the great sounds and Byron sang some of his favorite tunes. Dana and Don celebrated their Anniversary with family and friends and those having birthdays were serenaded with a song and best wishes. There were clowns with balloons from Tama Florist, selling cold bottled water from a wagon and assisting vendors and buyers as needed.

At the Lincoln Highway food booth were our new designed T-shirts, by Ultimate Images, Toledo. The design on the back was an antique car crossing the Lincoln Highway Bridge with the caption “Get over It”. These T-shirts can still be bought at Sweet Repeats in men’s and women’s v-neck shirts This is one of our fundraising items for the maintaince and upkeep of the Lincoln Highway Bridge Park.

To all the volunteers that helped prepare, attend meetings, made signs, set up, worked the sale, tore down and set up, big thanks for helping made our 1st time event a success.

This fundraiser was our first time to participate with the Iowa Lincoln Highway Buy-Way Yard Sales and the Buy-Way Yard Sales across the United states. It was a challenge and lots of work by so many volunteers. Our local Radio Station interviewed Carol and KFJB am out of Marshalltown interviewed Jeannie about the Lincoln Highway event and we thank them for supporting us. With the help of our cities leaders, organizations, clubs, and individuals donations, support and involvement, we had a successful event.

We will be participating next year with more vendors and many more shoppers. We look for our community leaders, local community, Church groups, Chamber members, city officials, businesses and youth groups to come to this fundraiser next year and support us.

We will be hosting a lunch meeting this October with other leaders of the Lincoln Highway Association. We will invite a member of the City Council of Tama and Toledo, the Chamber of Commerce, the local newspaper, other organizations, to learn about who we are, what we do and how important we are for the economics of Tama and Toledo by attracting travelers and visitors to visit our Memorial Park and Historical Bridge. If you have an interest in learning what the Lincoln Highway Association is all about and what we do to preserve, promote and educate others about our historical site, the Lincoln Highway Bridge and the Lincoln Highway Bridge Park, contact us for more information.

Our goal is to bring to life the little park that is the byway into our two cities for our community and travelers who are traveling the historical Lincoln Highway across Iowa and the United States. We will continue to add memorials, get our Lincoln Highway Bridge Memorial Park registered as an historical site, hold events and fundraisers to preserve and fix the bridge and maintain the park. Thanks to all who helped and those that participated, supported and donated to the Lincoln Highway Buy-Way Yard Sale of Tama 2014.

-Submitted by Jeannie Sieck for

The Lincoln Highway Bridge Park Organization

Tama-Toledo