Published: June 23, 2009 05:00 pm      

NIAGARA FALLS: LaSalle family has “yard sale” today but everything is free

Angela Lucarini is going to give things away today.

She’s having a yard sale in her LaSalle neighborhood but nothing will be sold. Everything’s going to be handed out free to whomever needs it.

The idea for the “sale” began to germinate the other day when Angela was out and about.

“It was just one of those days,” she said. She kept seeing and hearing things that troubled her deeply.

When she went to pick up her 7-year-old son at school, the nurse’s office was filled with kids.

“I was thinking about the fear running through people who are worried about swine flu. Everybody’s afraid,” she said. Then she imagined how people might be especially concerned because the economy would make dealing with illness even more frightening.

Not much later, she heard a couple talking. “She said to the man, ‘honey, did you get paid today,’ and he sadly shook his head,” Lucarini said. “She said, ‘I guess we won’t have bread with our meal tonight.’ ”

Then I went to the doctor’s office and it was full of people. “I heard one mother saying, “what am I going to do, I don’t have insurance for my daughter,” she said.

Lucarini knows there are people going hungry in Niagara Falls. She was an elementary teacher in the city before she decided to become a stay-at-home-mom for her five young children.She recalls asking her class, “who ate today,” and told of how only a few children would raise their hands.

“It’s happening in our own city. You always think it’s in another country or someplace else but it’s happening right here,” she said.

It’s not like she and her family don’t know hardship.

Her husband, Ron, has been laid off from General Motors for many months. There were times when they didn’t have a paycheck. Lucarini said she never asked for help, but people would simply provide it.

“Surprisingly, without me telling people what we were going through, people would just show up and bless us with things,” she said.

And now, she and her family want to do the same for others.

She spent yesterday contacting members of her extended family and many started looking around their homes for things to give away. When her sister-in-law heard the Lucarini’s were going food shopping for perishables to give away, she decided to do the same.

Lucarini said there will be food and non-perishables as well as clothing and whatever else she and her family are able to collect. The event will be held from 1 p.m. to about 3 p.m. or “until everything’s gone,” at her home at 537 73rd St.

She’s figuring on giving everyone who shows up a couple of food items per family and whatever else they might need, but people have asked her how she’ll stop people from taking things they don’t need.

“If someone’s going to come and take something, obviously they must need it,” she said. “I’m not going to be the judge.”

She’s not sure how it’s all going to work out, but, she holding out hope that the event goes smoothly.

“So many people are hurting everywhere,” she said. “I thought maybe if we could do this, the idea would catch on and spread.”