LAGUNA BEACH : Cleanup Campaign to Help Fire Victims

The city is gearing up for what promoters hope will be a citywide garage sale Saturday, followed by a spring cleanup campaign next week.

Promoted by the city and the Laguna Fire Relief Coalition, the project aims to rid local residences of trash that could become a fire hazard while raising money for victims of the Oct. 27 blaze.

“The whole concept is, you clean up your house, you clean up financially and you help clean up some of the problems of the survivors of the fire,” coalition director Anita Mangels said.

The coalition, a community-based group that formed after the fire and continues to distribute supplies to victims, is hoping residents will donate a percentage of the profit to the relief effort.

Residents overwhelmed at the prospect of tackling an overstuffed garage can get help from coalition workers who will distribute kits with information about how to organize a garage sale and signs identifying their household as a participant.

Coalition workers and Boy Scouts of America members will help in garages on the day of the sale, Mangels said.

“The Boy Scouts are on call,” she said. “If people need help setting up, selling, shifting items around, we will be happy to dispatch volunteers, provided they give us notice ahead of time that they need help.”

On Saturday, workers at the coalition headquarters at 660 N. Coast Highway will hand out city maps and the addresses of sale participants to prospective shoppers.

Next week, unsold items can be discarded at curbsides on the normal trash day. A separate truck will pick them up at no cost to residents.

As another option, several local nonprofit groups will hold a rummage sale Saturday in the parking lot behind Vons market in the Boat Canyon shopping center.

Residents wanting to sidestep the garage sale can deliver items to the parking lot after 7 a.m. Saturday.

To register or for more information, call (714) 376-9288.