AUBURN--Face painting and clowns highlighted the carnival, and a trove of collected "treasures" earmarked the tag sale at St. Joseph School in Auburn Saturday morning . But no painted smiles could match the happy faces of all involved--they were the real thing.

Kathleen Coye, principal, said the tag sale, which helps to sponsor the eighth grade class trip, is in its fifth year. Proceeds from the carnival go into the school's general fund.

Eight eighth-graders, all girls, will travel to Philadelphia at the end of April for three days and two nights with their chaperones, Coye and Ellen DelloStritto, a seventh grade social studies teacher at St. Joseph's.

"We expect to earn about $3,000 for the trip from the tag sale," Coye said. The trip will cost about $8,000. Other fundraisers during the year will help pay for the cost.

"Stuff has been coming in for at least five or six months," she said. Seventh and eighth grade students set up tables in the gym during their study halls and at the end of the day on Friday and came in at 8 a.m. on Saturday to finish putting things out.

Items were donated by parishioners, other members of the community, school employees, and relatives.

Tag sale organizer, Jeanie Lewis, an eighth grade mother, said the committee has been planning the sale since the first of the year.

"We basically cleaned out a lot of closets," she said. "I think some people did some spring cleaning early."