A RECORD-BREAKING DAY FOR DO40 AT THE BC/EFA FLEA MARKET!
Over $9,000 raised Sunday, Sept. 22nd at our DO40 tables!
That brings to $61,000 we have donated since 2007 for BC/EFA!
What an incredible, exhausting, and fruitful day at the BC/EFA Flea Market!
We knew we had a lot of merchandise, and most of it wasn’t expensive, but a few things
really helped us reach this record-shattering goal. First, there was the
Sondheim Estate Scavenger Hunt! Those things flew off the table!
And Playbill’s Harry Haun donated a box full of Sondheim Reviews as well.
Longtime member and 2023 DO40 Legacy Honoree Joe Ahumada donated the shirt
from the gay character (played by Greg Serano) in LEGALLY BLONDE, which
fetched $300.00, along with a plethora of products with names like Dior, Chanel, and Vuitton.
Flew outta there! And our little sippy cup table, helmed by DO40 member Ken Bloom!
What a selling machine! One person bought $800.00 worth of them!! They must be thirsty!!!
And talk about a range of ages in our membership! We had our youngest
“DO40...and Friends” member Charles Kirsch
(the podcast king!) who just turned 17 on September 21st, and Greg Kayne,
who just turned 96! Both of them stayed for almost the entire day!
Special thanks to DO40 members Mary Ann Hay and
Carol Banninger, who donated show jackets from
DREAMGIRLS, A CHORUS LINE, LES MISERABLES,
KING AND I (and more!!), and Dennis Birchall,
2020 Legacy Honoree, who gave us a bunch of show robes and towels! And that Carol
was a WIZ at selling! She held the fort on the right side of our
front tables, alongside another expert, Sandy Nance, explaining (and negotiating) with the fans!
DO40 prez John Sefakis with BC/EFA Executive Director Tom Viola
Loads of signed Playbills donated by Diane Coupé and
THOUSANDS donated by Christine Baccoli
(a buyer last year who kept us in mind for this year!). Souvenir programs,
signed and unsigned, of Angela Lansbury, Liza Minnelli,
and Liz Taylor memorabilia went fast.
And Tap, Tap, Tapping Away – a box FILLED
with DO40 member Lee Roy Reams’ tap and jazz shoes from
42nd Street, and more shoes and wares from Roger Preston Smith.
They all NY time-stepped away fast!
And where else could you find a Lea Delaria screwdriver (NSFW)
from Orange is the New Black, donated by DO40 Advisory Board member
Lori Tan Chinn!!
We had posters, signed, sealed, and delivered that the crowd bought by the bushel.
And we can’t forget about the fabulous SUTTON FOSTER
(did not wear these) CLOTHES bins! You can fool them once,
you can fool them twice – well, I guess you can fool them EVERY YEAR with this!
Donated by the Queen Mum of Vaccine for Project Achieve/NY Blood Center and Columbia University’s
HIV Vaccine Trials unit, Stella D’oro, and our board member Diva,
Sasha Spielvogel!
Lawrence Leritz, Ken Bloom, Charles Kirsch, Sharon Wendrow,
Carol Banninger, Bari Biern, John Sefakis, Patrick McCarthy, Sasha Spielvogel,
Sandy Nance, and Susan Sigrist
And Tapping is Back! But not THAT Lee Roy Reams sold-out 42nd Street shoes kind of tapping!
We’re talking about not paying with cash, but by tapping our handy Flea Market charge device.
And the real young and hip don’t tap with their credit cards – they just tap with their phones!
A miracle machine to all us waaay over 40! But we took in over $4000.00 just with that device!
(But still ended up with thousands of one-dollar bills!)
The thanks! And you know we’ll be shaded if we forget someone! First, thanks to the Head Flea-ster himself,
Ken McGee at BC/EFA for getting DO40 help in schlepping all of our wares to – and from – Shubert Alley.
We’ve been doing the flea market for 17 YEARS (not counting the lost COVID 2020 year),
and we are ALL 18 years OLDER-Dancers-Over... well, you know... and it gets harder and harder for us
to schlepp all the goods by ourselves.
DO40 Prez John Sefakis with our newest member,
Stephanie Pope-Lofgren and youngest member, Charles Kirsch!
Thanks to our DO40 board who came out to help and all the members who managed the sun and stood on concrete for 10 hours!
Here we go: Board Members Ken Bloom, Sasha Spielvogel, Eileen Casey, Patrick McCarthy, and Lawrence Leritz,
and members Carol Banninger, Sandy Nance, the Flying Mariano sisters, Patti and JoAnn, Christine Reisner,
James Dybas, Ellen Fluhr, Karin Baker and hubby Greg Kayne, Susan Sigrist, Alan Onickel, Mary McCatty,
Charles Kirsch, Judi Mark, Bobby Heglin Taylor, Scott Raneri, and our favorite poster-girl who always poses for
our end-of-the-day picture, DO40 Legacy Honoree Virginia Seidel.
And we welcomed new member Stephanie Pope-Lofgren, who took to the tables like a seasoned croupier at the craps tables!
She also donated posters and a Brenda Braxton menopause box, which sold very quickly!
And DO40 visitors/buyers Yvonne and Roger Puckett, Marina Thomas,
Dennis Birchall, Ann Marie Segal, and fans
David Noh, producer Edmund Gaynes,
Megan VanWaus (our new website manager!), Richie Ridge,
our DO40 photographer Jeff Eason, Brian Cummings,
Stephen Nachamie, Blake Pruitt, and Julia Sweeney
– and probably many more we missed!
The Sippy Cups Crew: Ken Bloom, Ken Kantor, Bari Biern, and Charles Kirsch
One of the most rewarding things about being there in person is talking to the crowd, explaining
not only our wares, but what we do and why we do it. Some are fans who come back year after year
to our tables (we really didn’t know we had that kind of following)! They know that they’ll find
things at the DO40 tables that are nowhere else to be found. And sure, other tables have Playbills,
but not alphabetized by musicals and plays! And nor will you find such a variety of sellers who have
a direct connection to the product they are selling.
It never ended! From 9am (when we weren’t even open!)
to 6pm (when we were supposed to close!)
L to R: Lawrence Leritz, Sharon Wendrow,
Patrick McCarthy, Sandy Nance, Carol Banninger
Here’s our always glam gal, and always our
last pic of the day, Virginia Seidel,
ready to pack
it in at the end of the day next to our DO40 van
Background Photo 2013 BC/EFA FLEA MARKET, By Jeff Eason, Wilsonmodels, Inc
