Flea Market has ‘banner year’

A new event layout, plus substantial community support, helped turn the annual GFWC Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club’s annual flea market into a hit.

“We had a banner year,” said Pat Serio, co-chairwoman of the flea market. “It did not break a record, but it was a very good year for us, and we wanted to thank the community for really stepping up to our requests for donations, and they certainly came out to shop.”

The GFWC Lutz-Land O’Lakes Woman’s Club opted to expand the layout of the flea market at the Historic Old Lutz School by adding additional pop-up tents behind the facility.

Serio said the expanded layout, which was former woman’s club president Kay Taylor’s idea, allowed for “better flow of traffic” for flea market shoppers.

“We’ve had a lot of feedback from customers who’ve been coming to our flea market over the past decade, and they loved it because it was expanded,” said Serio, noting they plan on having a similar event layout next year. “We had more than ever in terms of merchandise, and it was spread out, and we were able to display it better as a result.

“It just worked so well. It was very convenient. It just spread the crowd out, too.”

The new tent layout also improved the aesthetics of the popular flea market, which is usually the club’s second-largest fundraiser each year.

“In prior years, we were forced to layer things and stack things, so people sometimes can’t see what is being offered,” Serio said. “This was really very good in terms of staging.”

Serio estimates “somewhere between 1,500 to 2,000 people” visited the flea market, on March 4 and March 5.

Additionally, sales were up from last year’s flea market, Serio said.

“That’s what we always aim to do — have more success than the prior year is always the right direction to be in,” she said.

Serio noted the flea market had a lot of leftover items — enough to fill three trailers for beneficiaries like the Goodwill and Salvation Army.

“Usually, we have two small trailers but, for some reason, Goodwill sent out what I referred to as an 18-wheeler. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, where are we going to put this?’ But, we put (the trailers) side-by-side. Goodwill came by with a second trailer, and we filled all of it,” Serio explained.

“Due to the nature of the beast, we always have a lot of leftovers. That isn’t indicative of our sales,” she said.

The woman’s club plans to have a board meeting on March 17 to discuss how the organization will divvy up flea market funds for donations and college scholarships.

Serio said the organization will be able to award college scholarships this year, but there will be fewer than last year.

Typically, the organization provides about a dozen of those scholarships, totaling $18,000 to $20,000 in donations each year. However, the cancellation last December of the club’s annual arts and crafts festival put a significant dent in the club’s finances. The arts and crafts festival normally is the club’s biggest fundraiser, so its cancellation has caused the group to shift gears.

“We have to revise and do things quite differently because of this year’s situation,” Serio said.

The club expects to host several small events throughout the year to raise additional funds.

Published March 16, 2016