AUBURN - Louise Mantei, 96, planned to spend six hours behind the jewelry table on Friday helping customers pick out earrings, necklaces, pins and bracelets at the Auburn Nursing Home's annual rummage sale.

She did it, she said, to help the home where she's lived for more than a year, as well as to satisfy her own obsession with colorful baubles.

“Jewelry has been my weakness all my life,” Mantei said. “I had the most beautiful jewelry, but my daughter has it now.”

Proceeds from the rummage sale benefit activity programs at the nursing home. Last year the sale raised $900. That helped purchase a 52-inch television set that sits in the dining room where the sale was held.

This year, employees hope to buy a smaller set for the back dining room, as well as stereo equipment, CDs, pizza parties, DVDs and portable CD players. Residents at the 92-bed facility have said they want to see the movie “Mama Mia!,” so that will be a sure buy.

Whatever is left over from the sale will become bingo prizes, said Deb DiMatteo, activities director.

The sale includes household goods such as baskets, figurines and candleholders, along with a table brimming with stuffed animals. Staff and families of residents donated the items. Along with the residents, staff and family members were the chief customers.

Some of the money raised at the sale will go toward activity programs for those residents with dementia. DiMatteo and her staff run programs that stimulate the senses, such as playing instruments to the beat of music, arranging flowers and folding clothes.

“It's all about them doing things they enjoyed doing in the past,” DiMatteo said.

Residents who were able helped out with the sale by pricing the items. It was a welcome break from the routine, and residents enjoyed spending a dollar or two as they purchased items as gifts or for themselves.

For her part, Mantei was glad to be busy and useful behind the jewelry table. Customers asked her opinion about whether the jewelry would look good on them, and Mantei, a retired cashier, felt she was working for a worthwhile cause.

“I live here, so I'm trying to help myself as well as everybody else,” she said.

The event reminded her of the 34 years she spent as chairperson of her church's rummage sale in Schenectady. She has fond memories of those times, and the rummage sale brought them back.

“I did this last year and I got a big kick out of it,” she said. “I do it every year and I certainly enjoy it to no end.”

The sale strengthens the home's sense of community, DiMatteo said. “They feel this is an important part of their lives because they're all involved in it.”