Be Green Kids Consignment Sale Rescheduled

TIVERTON, RI — Aquidneck Island's biannual Be Green Kids Consignment Sale will be held from June 25 to 28. The sale is the largest of its kind in Newport County.

The March sale was rescheduled due to the pandemic, and will now be held at the Longplex Sports Center in Tiverton.

"Our consignors and shoppers shared my disappointment when we had to cancel the original sale that has traditionally taken place in March at the Pennfield School in Portsmouth, but we all understood the decision was made for the health and safety of all involved," said Alison Murphy, who founded the event. "For 10 years our sale has provided many people in our area a source of income and an affordable place to buy children’s clothing, toys and necessities, I was determined to reschedule the sale when it was safe to do so."

The sale has been held twice each year since 2010, growing each year. After the sale was canceled in March. Murphy worked to find a place that would accommodate the sale while allowing safe social distancing.

"We normally have 200 consignors and 1500-2000 families that shop our sale over the three days,so I could not, would not, give up on rescheduling it," she said. "I just had no idea exactly how complex that would be."

Longplex Sports Complex has more than 20,000 square feet of space, which will allow the sale to be safely held.

"In my 27 years of event management, this has been the most challenging three months I’ve ever endured, but I’m ecstatic to bring the Be Green Kids Consignment Sale to Longplex Sports Center," Murphy continued. "It’s a tremendously large space which offers ample parking and will set the stage for a safe, well-spaced, efficient sale."

An extra day was added to prevent overcrowding, and safety protocols will be in place. To limit the number of people shopping at any given time, a ticketed system will be used, allowing 80 people in at once. In addition, there will be temperature checks at the door, mask-wearing requirements, sanitization, sneeze guards and more. Shoppers are asked to bring their own bags.

Teachers, military families, essential workers and new or expecting parents will have special shopping hours on June 25, as well as "shop for a cause day" on June 26.

Youth groups and parent-teacher organizations that were forced to cancel spring fundraisers can take part by encouraging people to buy a $5 entry ticket, which will be matched by the organization.

"I know how hard it has been for youth organizations to raise much needed funds during these times," Murphy said. "I saw my sale as an opportunity for them to partner with us and raise money in a very easy way- promote Shop For a Cause to their families, encourage the purchase of entry ticket and we will match all those purchased!"

Public shopping hours will be from 8:30 to 3 p.m. on June 27, and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 28m, when most items will be half priced. Any unsold items will be donated to Foster Forward of Rhode Islan at the end of the weekend.

"We’ve had to recalibrate to move forward, but we’ve been in constant contact with our shoppers and consignors to make this happen and I have to say, I’m really proud of this community, local leadership who has worked with us along the way, the staff at Longplex and the consigning families we partner with to make these sales a success," Murphy concluded.

More information is available on the event's website.