Published: Tuesday, May. 31, 2011 / Updated: Tuesday, May. 31, 2011 03:46 PM
Yard sale helps children, memorializes Dakota Gay
LAKE WYLIE --
Most yard sales aim at decluttering a house. One in Autumn Cove this weekend will help fill up the Conder home – with children by the boatloads.
The 8 a.m. to noon event Friday and Saturday takes place at 4507 Summerside Drive, benefitting the fifth annual Dakota’s Spectacular Day on the Lake. Money raised will help volunteers provide food, boat rides, fireworks, gifts and other activities for children battling cancer.
“We can use all types of donated items for the sale,” said Lannette Conder, whose late son Dakota Gay who died at age 15 from brain cancer prompting the memorial day on the lake. “All proceeds will go to the kids’ cancer day event.”
The yard sale location also is the drop-off site for donated items or monetary donations. Donors also can provide items for the lake day including bottled water, juice pouches, gas cards, snacks and gift cards to grocery stores or Walmart. Most anything that children like and that won’t melt in the sun, Conder is taking.
“The day is filled with so much fun,” she said. “We have many wonderful volunteers who come out to our home on the lake with their boats and take the kids for rides, tubing, great food, games and a spectacular firework show.”
Volunteers with the Conder family partner each year with Courageous Kidz, a Charleston-based group describing itself as a “safe haven for kids with cancer.” Special events like the lake trip, which also includes a day at Carowinds, are designed for children as “their chance to be wonderfully normal.”
“We’re so excited,” said Deborah Stephenson, founder and director of Courageous Kidz. “The lake is better than Carowinds.”
This year Stephenson plans to bring 66 children, 35 volunteer chaperones and five medical staffers. She has volunteers and past lake day participants flying in from California, New York, Florida and Atlanta at their own expense to help the current cast of Courageous Kidz enjoy Lake Wylie.
“It’s a family,” Stephenson said of the lake day event. “This is a mission from God.”
One child has a 20-hour surgery coming up and needed a laptop to keep connected with family and friends while in the hospital. Volunteers from Lake Wylie provided it. Another child recently had a spleen removed, but vowed to be ready for travel by lake day.
“He was encouraged to heal,” Stephenson said. “They go beyond the call of duty for these kids.”
The Conders were part of Courageous Kidz when Dakota used the group’s services. Few if any of the children attending the event this year will remember Gay, but all will know of him.
“We do this day to celebrate our son’s beautiful life and to give back to these brave children who are fighting the battle of cancer,” Conder said. “(Husband) Ted and I love doing this day because we loved our son so very much but nothing will light up your heart like helping a child have joy, and that’s what this day is about.”
For more information about the yard sale, lake event or other opportunities to donate or volunteer, call 803-831-1705 or e-mail luvthroughcaring@aol.com.
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