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Community Corner

Yard Sale Benefits Children of Shooting Victim

Coworkers of Alice Everette, the woman shot at a Chick-Fil-A drive-thru, raised $7,500 to help benefit her three young girls.

Hundreds of people donated items to be sold at a yard sale Saturday to benefit the children of Alice Everette, the woman who was on Prince William Parkway last February.

Everette, a Dumfries resident, left behind three girls, ages four, eight, and twelve. They are now living with Everette’s brother and his wife. Everrette’s estranged husband has been charged with her murder.

The yard sale, which drew dozens of shoppers all throughout the morning, was organized by Everette’s coworkers and held in the parking lot next to

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“Most everyone helping here worked with Alice,” said Sonia Thompson. “Some worked right next to her, we all saw her on a daily basis.” Thompson said she and the others arrived at 5:30 a.m. to set up and people started showing up as soon as it was light out.

Shelly Dunphy, who came up with the idea for the yard sale, said they had been organizing it for about a month and collected donations for two days, getting enough things to fill a U-Haul. Many people also donated cash.

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"There were so many others who helped but were not able to be at the yard sale today, many of whom coordinated the bake and donut sales earlier in the week and helped out sorting and pricing yard sale items," said Dunphy.  

The event’s Facebook page had many people asking how they could help. One even from a bride saying, “I'll be getting married that day but would like to help anyway I can. Let me know what I can do!”

"I can't begin to tell you how many hands helped out," said Dunphy. "All together between cash contributions, the donut and bake sale, and the yard sale held today we raised approximately $7500 for Alice's girls."

The sale officially began at 7 a.m. and by 10 a.m. Dunphy said that “most of the stuff” was already gone—and there was still enough to be a full-fledged yard sale at that point.

Dunphy said one woman came to the sale who had been at the Chick-Fil-A when Everette was shot and had prayed with Everette in her car before she died. “She wasn’t able to go to the memorial service, so she came here as a kind of closure,” she said.

The coworkers also held a donut sale earlier in the week and a bake-sale on Friday as part of the fundraising. Dunphy said they had 15 to 20 volunteers on Saturday, including some Marines who came early in the morning to help transport items to the sale site.

Dick’s Sporting Goods donated clothing racks for the day and Giant Food donated bags. Several other local restaurants also donated gift cards for the family.

All proceeds from the sale will go directly to help Everette’s girls. Leftover items from the sale were donated to Action in Community Through Service.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Sonia Thompson's last name. It has since been corrected. We regret the error. 

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