PLACEShelburne, Vermont
Shelburne sits on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, twenty minutes south of Burlington, with the Adirondacks across the water and the Green Mountains at its back. About 8,200 people live here, among orchards and farms, with trails along the lake.
It is a town that knows something about keeping things. Just up the road from Wake Robin is the Shelburne Museum, which Electra Havemeyer Webb opened in 1947. Her “collection of collections” grew to 39 buildings, one of them a 220-foot steamboat she had moved onto the grounds. A little farther on is Shelburne Farms, the 1,400-acre estate her husband’s family built in the 1880s, still a working farm and a National Historic Landmark.
Wake Robin is a Life Plan Community that sits on 136 acres among them, named for the red trillium that blooms there each spring. Every June, its residents hold a sale.
COMMUNITYThe Residents
About 400 people live at Wake Robin. Residents join the community while living independently and are offered residential care, skilled nursing, and memory care if or when they’re needed.
It is an vibrant, eco-conscious community with activities ranging from hiking to gardening to making maple syrup. Every year, more than 200 of them also run the tag sale.
The residents below appear in Tag Sale. Some spend the year sorting and pricing other people’s things. Some are deciding what to let go of themselves.
In the film
Jan Lawson
Jim Wick
Karen Smith
Kit Wilson
Sarah Meyers
Scarlett Ober
Suzi Wizowati
And, about 400 neighbors
The event · Since 1995One weekend in June
Preparation 9
Months
More than 200 resident volunteers collect, sort and price items donated by their neighbors over the course of nine months.
Friday 14,000
Square Feet
The garage, used just for the event, opens to Wake Robin staff and their families as a thank-you. Residents and their families browse in the afternoon.
Saturday1,100+
Shoppers
The door opens! Shoppers from nearby towns and as far as upstate New York line the paths and fill bags and carts with treasures.
Sunday$45,000
Goods Sold
Proceeds from the tag sale support resident-run programs and clubs at Wake Robin. Whatever items remain are boxed for redistribution to the larger community through local charities who continue the process through their own tag sales or resale stores. In 2025, another $15,000 in donations went to local nonprofits.
“It’s all things that somebody has loved at one time or another.”
Karen Black