MIDDLEBORO — The Oak Point retirement community is giving back to the next generation, to the tune of about $36 thousand dollars in scholarships for Middleboro students raised by the annual yard sale held on Saturday, Oct. 7. 

John Burbage, the president of the Oak Point Homeowners Scholarship Fund, explained that the scholarship money raised during the yard sale would go to “the class of 2023” including “kids going to Middleboro high school as well as kids from Middleboro that attend Bristol-Plymouth Technical School.”

“The people in this community, some of these people have been doing the yard sale for more than twenty years, " Burbage explained. “It’s something they look forward to every year.”

The organization is currently the largest provider of scholarship funds for Middleboro High School students according to Oak Point Homeowners Scholarship Association Secretary Cathy Shachoy.

Middleboro residents and residents of nearby towns were able to buy raffle tickets, furniture, tools, electronics, and other items at the yard sale. The Oak Point garden club also sold outdoor-related items at the yard sale.

On Friday, there was an Oak Point resident only version of the sale, where Oak Point residents, along with one guest for each resident, could purchase items, Burbage said.

At the end of the yard sale, at 2 p.m Burbage said that a “truck from Habitat for Humanity” would be arriving “to pick through some of the nicer items that might be left.”

The yard sale “was started as a way to raise our profile in the town of Middleboro,” Burbage explained, “to show them that this community [Oak Point] is generous and gives back.”

According to Burbage, the annual yard sale fundraiser began in 1999 when a group of Oak Point residents decided that they wanted to give back to the community. 

Burbage said that Oak Point resident Ed Beaulieu was the first to “kick five dollars into a coffee can”  in support of the cause in 1999. 

Chuck Huckins, the first president of the Oak Point Homeowners Scholarship Association, spread the word about the event and from then on the event grew according to Burbage.

“We had a very successful yard sale despite the slightly inclement weather,” Burbage said.