Chicago White Sox Charities hold garage sale | ChicagoLIVE

We're going to move on, actually, from one organization giving to another organization giving back. White Sox fans have the chance to score big while giving back to the community. The White Sox Charities Garage Sale today, 9 to 11 at the Rate Patio. Fans can shop thousands of discounted items, including autographed memorabilia, game-used gear, proceeds support, White Sox Charities. It's always great to chat with our friend, Sarah LaPorta. Who is the Senior Director of Community Relations with the White Sox. Always good to see you. How you doing? You might have the wrong... Sir, hold on. Hello? Oh, there you go. All right, we got you. Now we can hear you. Hi. Hi, Sarah. Hi. How are you guys? Listen, we're so great. We're so excited to talk with you because when we talk with you, it means that something great is happening in the community. For people who have never attended that White Sox Charities Garage Sale, can you explain it a little bit? So it's a free event, it's open to the public, and we have thousands and thousands of items for White Sox fans from, I see a guy right here in front of me that's buying a banner that was hanging down 35th Street, to a game-used jersey, autographed baseballs, old giveaways from the ballpark. Honestly, anything you can think of that would have a White Sox logo on it, and honestly, then some. I mean, obviously it's doing well. You can see all the people behind you. So, I mean, you guys are always doing so many great things. We definitely want to talk about the garage sale more, but, you know, we talk at the beginning of every season. You guys have such a great sort of charity organization there at the White Sox. Why is it so important to you guys? Yeah, I mean we're so lucky. We're honestly, everything is powered by our fans and like this event's a great example. We have well over a thousand people already in line. They've been here since 6 a.m. in line and actually before, even before that we opened the parking lots at 6 a.m. But everything we're able to do all season long is powered by fans. Whether that's a 50-50 ticket, coming to one of our events, anything that you can do to support White Sox Charities helps our fans, or is powered by our fans to help the work that we do in the community. And we're active all year long, off season or in season. We're continuing to do that. do stuff in the community to give back. You know, I liked it in past years when you gave away like chairs, you know, bleacher seats. I could buy like a chair from, you know, the old park. I bet those are long gone, but you know what? If you ever sell a piece of the scoreboard, you know what? I'm on board. It's important. We don't have a piece of the scoreboard today. We have old bricks from Comiskey Park, though, so those are here from the old ballpark. See? I love that. We don't have any chairs today, but, like, I mean, we have street banners. We have all kinds of things, so you never know what you might find. It's always a fun. Treasure hunt, we'll call it. Oh, and I'd imagine, too, it's probably fun sort of seeing what items really get people riled up. Like, I love the idea of the old Comiskey bricks. I think that's pretty cool. What are some of the things that you've noticed just being there right now that you've seen people light up whenever they see that they're actually available? I mean, that's what's so great about this. There's something for everyone. So we have people that go straight to the jerseys. We have one guy who comes every year that goes straight to the shoes. The game-used shoes is his favorite thing. We have people that only want the gate giveaways, what's left over from the gate giveaways. So everyone's different, and that's what's so great about this sale is there really is something for everybody. So like bobbleheads, we have those? Thank you very much. Yep. I mean, we have probably 1,000 bobbleheads just in bobbleheads. Wow. That's a lot of bobbles. You know, whenever we hear about game used anything, right, my mind immediately goes to, well, that's going to cost something. But is this probably the most affordable that you're going to find these items? Because these are pieces of history. Is this garage sale kind of the, listen, this is the best deal you're going to get. Yeah, I mean, items are priced to sell. Obviously, some of the more unique items might be priced higher. But we have jerseys over there for like $25, you know. Really? We get, you know, it's not just the major league teams. All of our minor league jerseys that are worn at spring training, we have as well. So it might be a jersey that a minor league player wore for spring training. We don't even know what player wore it, but it's still a White Sox jersey. And you can get a jersey for $25, which is, you're not going to find a jersey for $25 anywhere else, especially an authentic jersey. Wow. Yeah, one that comes with, like, sweat. Yeah. Yeah, like professional sweat. The sweat's free. We won't charge extra. We don't charge extra for the sweat. You know, listen, I know a lot of times when you're dealing with particularly sports items and stuff that is... It's one of a kind, and it's very valuable. People can, you know, we've seen it on, like, Black Fridays and stuff. People can start throwing elbows, but looking behind you, it seems like White Sox fans, very well-behaved, very respectful. Yeah, everyone was very well-behaved in line, so kudos to all the Sox fans. I think people made some new friends in line, which is always a good thing. But, no, everyone's been great, so we're excited. Now, I know that I see one person just walked by with, like, a bat, which is – I'm just loving watching the background, which is fantastic. Now, this is happening, what, 9 to 11? So if you're at home watching this right now and you're interested, you might want to dip out of Chicago Live a little early and go ahead and head down there because you guys aren't going to be around for much longer. Yeah, you just have to be in line at 11. So, we'll be open well past 11, but we just close the parking lots at 11. So, as long as you're in line at 11, we'll still be allowed in. So, we're not closing, closing at 11. We just close the lots at 11. It's like boating. You just got to be in line. Yeah, got to be in line. So, do you guys have, like, a little... Exactly, exactly. Like a basement over there underneath Sox Park where this stuff just accumulates, like, all year long? The Sox Park. Yeah, and it's like, we just, you know, Chauncey, get down there and clean that stuff out, you know? Is that how that works? Yep. Yeah, kind of. Basically, yes. It's like no, it's a storage area that's underneath the ballpark, but it's underneath the seats, actually. So at very few points can you stand all the way up. So it's a little bit of a challenge, but everything we have stored is all out. No kidding. So it actually gets tucked in kind of like I would tuck stuff in the rafters in my garage. You guys are tucking in stuff underneath the bleachers, huh? That's great. Yep, yep. Listen, Sarah, before we let you go, you know, the garage sale is an amazing opportunity to raise a lot of great funds for some amazing causes, but I know you guys are doing stuff in, you know, stuff kind of year round, even, even when it's not baseball season, you guys are continuously giving back. If someone can't come out to this, I'd imagine there's some other, other ways people can contribute as well. Yeah, I mean, we have a weekly auction for those who are into memorabilia for game use and autograph things that go on our website every week. We have a new auction every Monday that ends then on Sunday. And then just kind of keep an eye on our website. We have a lot of different opportunities as the year goes on. The White Sox Volunteer Corps is a way to give back with your time if you just want to volunteer. And they have events every single month. They have like five events a month where you can volunteer with them. All right. Sarah LaPorta, White Sox Senior Director of Community Relations. We love what you're doing out there. And listen, if you want to grab a couple of things, Mark and I got to do the rest of the show. So you want to grab a couple of things and just kind of stick them aside. I'm sure that's totally an okay thing to do. But listen, it's always good to see you. It's always great to hear all the amazing things that you're doing. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you, guys. Great to see you. Good to see you.