BROOKLINE – On June 9, the Brookline Historical Society and the Brookline Community Church held their first town-wide yard sale on Route 13.

Historical Society member Kim McClure came up with the idea of a town-wide yard sale and pitched it to other society members. They were not the only ones with the idea.

“(The Historical Society) found out the church was doing one, too, so we decided to join forces,” McClure said.

Originally, the church was going to have people pay to register to put their houses with yard sales and then sell maps to those who wanted to find them. When the Historical Society joined, they added their idea of also having a central spot to sell table spaces.

The two groups decided on 99 Route 13, in front of where The Riverside Restaurant used to be. To secure this spot, Scott Grzyb, of the Historical Society, talked to Paul Andres, who owns the land. Grzyb said this part of the process “went pretty smoothly.”

The Historical Society is using their part of the proceeds to help pay for their barn-raising efforts next to the Historical Society. This barn will be used for town meetings and to display Brookline’s historical artifacts.

Sheryl Ellis, of the Community Church, said they plan on using their funds from selling maps to improve their community outreach programs, “especially the children’s programs.”

Included on the church’s table were a raffle for various games and free items with information about the church.

“We’re hoping to promote a sense of community,” said Carol Cherian, who has been a church member for six years. “We thought it would be a good opportunity for people to have their yard sales at the same time to draw a larger crowd.”

Historical Society president David Fessenden agreed, saying the society wanted to “get people recognized” and “make them aware of what’s in the town.”

Some of these residents had unusual sales going on.

Fourth-grader Victoria Harris set up a table with her parents, Brendhan and Annabelle, to sell cupcakes for $1, along with her family’s old things. The proceeds from selling the cupcakes are going to the World Wildlife Fund to help endangered red pandas.

“I just like to bake,” Victoria said.

Those cupcakes – with yellow, chocolate, devil’s food, and Funfetti cake – led one mother and patron to ask Harris to make cupcakes for her son’s graduation party.

“I hope I get paid,” Victoria said, laughed.

Down the line of tables were Amy Razzaboni’s boxes of wooden craft supplies, ranging from 25 cents to a pick-your-own bag of crafts for $5.

“We cleaned out my mother-in-law’s craft closet,” she said.

Razzaboni and other were “surprised how many people were involved today,” however Brookline resident Peter Cook, who works with the church and Historical Society, believes the town-wide yard sale will become an annual event.

“This is the first year anything like this has happened,” Cook said. “I think it will gain momentum.”