Wednesday, October 7, 2026
The Rescuing Families garage sale and boutique, hosted at the charity’s headquarters on Lewiston Street in Franklin Square, showcased antiques, vintage pieces and modern ware from all over the world. Local Long Island families donated all items displayed, each carrying its own history.
The weekend sale, hosted Aug. 23-24, featured goods ranging from kitchen, bath and home items to media, toys and tchotchkes. Proceeds support Rescuing Families’ mission to make local homes disability-accessible, and the organization has drawn recognition this year from multiple cities and committees for its work.
During the event, Gina Centauro, co-founder of Rescuing Families, highlighted a standout Capodimonte piece donated by a family in Garden City. She noted that while such items are typically small floral designs, this one was unusually large.
“This is probably one of the most unique pieces we’ve gotten donated to date,” Gina said. “It is from the early 1900s.”
Nearby was another ceramic piece not a Capodimonte, but equally striking.
“This was a set, so there’s two different ones of this,” Gina said of the piece, noting that it was donated by a Franklin Square family. “They’re beautiful, decorative pieces for your kitchen or your home.”
Gina and her husband, Vinny, have also contributed, donating their own dish set when they bought a new one recently.
Inside the boutique, Gina has rearranged the displays many times, but said she likes the current setup the best.
“Our little thrift store became a very carefully curated boutique,” Gina said. “It’s not like most of the thrift stores you’ll see. I worked in merchandising for many years, and in a lot of the smaller boutique stores. So I kind of took it and ran with it.”
Above the clothing area hangs a vintage painting of a Vogue cover, alongside a pair of wooden shoe molds. Closer to the entrance, a special shelf dedicated to the 1800s displays a cast iron flat iron, a cast iron string holder, a kerosene lamp and a hand-blown pinch neck glass onion.
“You have stuff from the mid-1800s all the way up to current,” Gina said. “We have pop culture, clothing, jewelry. You’ll see barware. We mark everything to show when we do our research.”
The boutique also includes a craft corner featuring the work of local artists, some of whom volunteer with the organization. Items come from Silent Stitches, Truly Unique Designs and Joe’s Wooden Creations.
Gina said she is especially delighted by how far people travel to visit the store.
“We have people coming from as far away as Westchester, all the way out on Long Island, West Islip, and parts of Connecticut and Jersey,” she said.
Recognition for Rescuing Families has grown. The organization was Stop & Shop’s “Give Back” charity in April and has since been selected as one of Geico’s partner charities, which will provide volunteers. It was also chosen as Rockville Centre’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade’s only local charity, among three honored from the United States and Ireland.
For Gina, the garage sale and boutique provide not only critical funds but also an environmentally conscious alternative.
“We’d rather see it come here, or another thrift store even, than go in the landfill,” she said.
She added that every donation drive feels like Christmas because of the generosity of donors and the variety of items they provide. Her passion for vintage and antique items runs deep.
“People love nostalgia,” she said. “They love vintage. We all have an attachment to the past, whether it’s through our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. We all have an attachment, even to our own childhoods. We got a Fisher Price barn from the ’70s and I was outside playing with it, because I was so excited that we got it.”
