SKANEATELES - Eager shoppers lined up bright and early Saturday morning along Genesee Street from the doors of St. James Episcopal Church.

From stoves and refrigerators to mantel pieces, lamps, to computers and electronics and home decorative items there was a little bit of everything at the seventh annual St. James Jumble Sale.

The sale was the brain child of parishioner Dave Plogman and he was pleased to see the ever growing response to the sale this year.

“We started this in 2003,” Plogman said. “This is the seventh year and people were lined up all the way down the street this morning for it. It is great to see the way people support this.”

Plogman, along with Becky Hildy, co-chaired the sale this year, and she was equally impressed with the turnout.

“We were mobbed this morning,” Hildy said. “There were people from here all the way down to the fireplug. It was amazing to see.”

The sale, a major fundraiser for the church, is a rather unique sort of rummage sale.

Parishioners and members of the Skaneateles community donate items all year long, creating quite a collection of items to sell, some of which have made a unique course to the sale.

“Everybody really pitches in for this,” Hildy said. “We get some really great items. Like this year we got a couple of mantle pieces. We got some really great lamps. But we got a little bit of everything. You'll even see the same items every year. One person will buy something one year and then donate it back and some one else will donate it the next year. So you see the same things mixed in with new things each year.”

But the key to the sale was to get there early.

While there were still many fine items for sale through the afternoon, items were moving fast.

This, at least in part, can be attributed to why the sale has been so successful year after year.

“That is why people get here so early,” Plogman said. “They know what we are about and they know that they can find some really great stuff and they know that they can find some really great deals. I think that is what has helped this become so successful.”

Shoppers like Cleo Paradise, of Skaneateles, know full well the key is to get there early.

Paradise said that she has come to the sale almost every year since it started.

While she got there a little later this year, she said she still found some interesting items like planters in the shape of birdhouses.

“I think this is great,” Paradise said.

“You never know what you are going to find. There are always some interesting things here. You really have to get here early. I've found great things, like bookcases. There is always something different every year. That is what is really great about this sale.”

Proceeds raised from the sale will go toward various church efforts.

“What we raise will go towards a lot of different part of our ministry,” Plogman said.

“It will go toward education and advocacy groups. Everything will go towards supporting the church and its ministry.”