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Barnett Child Care Center selling all
Five-year-old Carson Lycans bangs a toy gong during a two day sale of building contents at the Barnett Child Care Center Saturday.
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON -- Rooms that were once filled with children were filled with parents, community members and workers from other child care facilities Saturday at the Barnett Child Care Center.
The board for the center, which closed in January for renovations, made the decision in June that the economic outlook was not good enough to reopen.
Board president Lisa Martin said selling off the center's possessions in order to meet financial obligations is emotional because of the history the center has in Huntington. For 75 years, the center carried out its mission to promote growth and development in the children it served.
"It's been a very emotional day for the board," Martin said. "Everything that's in the building has to go."
The sale continues from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. next Saturday at the center, located at the corner of Hal Greer Boulevard and 10th Avenue in Huntington. Whatever is left, Martin said, will be donated to various youth agencies in the area.
The money raised through sale, she said, would go to pay off a bank loan, utility bills and construction bills. She hopes to raise more than $10,000.
Laura Cummings, a preschool teacher at Johnson Memorial Preschool, came to look at some chairs, but ended up buying dozens of books. All the books are under $2, and most are $1 or less. Teaching materials and activity books are free, and Cummings said she'll put them to good use in her classroom. But she said she understands how it must feel to be selling off the toys and books that have touched so many kids' lives.
"I can sympathize with them," Cummings said.
Among some of the items that were for sale: adult and child chairs, games, kitchen equipment, playground equipment, printers, copiers and computers. The building, Martin said, will be given back to the city of Huntington.
