photo by: Nick Krug

In the aftermath of the Orlando shooting, which left 49 people dead and many others wounded, 14-year-old Lawrence resident Baxter Spielman decided he wanted to help in some way. After selling a handful of DVDs for money to be donated, Baxter, along with his mother Becca Burns, decided to organize donations for a two-day garage sale, which will be this Saturday and Sunday. Baxter and his mother have received donations from friends and others who have responded to their requests on Facebook. The proceeds will be donated to the family of Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, who was killed during the shooting while with her son Isaiah Henderson, who was among the survivors.

“Orlando” was scrawled in yellow chalk Saturday on a sidewalk in front of the 2213 Rhode Island St. home of 14-year-old Baxter Spielman.

The Florida city’s name gave meaning to the scene on the lawn of the home’s front yard. That patch of tree-shaded green was filled with tables piled with items his family and friends contributed for a yard sale.

Spielman said he was compelled to organize and have the yard sale on learning the news of the June 12 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, which left 49 people attending an Hispanic night event dead.

All the money raised at the yard sale, which will continue from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, will be donated to the family of a single victim, Brenda Lee Marquez McCool. The 49-year-old woman was killed by two bullets after stepping between the shooter and her son.

“She sacrificed herself to protect her son,” Spielman said. “The story really touched me. I felt like I needed to do something. Someone said, ‘What about a garage sale?’ I thought that was something I was comfortable doing. I feel very passionate about this.”

The money will help the family, but Spielman, who will be a sophomore at Lawrence High School next year, said he also wanted to send a message of support from Lawrence to all the victims of the shooting.

Baxter’s mothers, Eliot Spielman and her partner Becca Burns, said the sale was a result of the son’s compassionate nature.

“I wasn’t surprised when he told me about his idea,” Eliot Spielman said. “He’s always thinking of others.”

The “Orlando” written on the sidewalk was just part of his and his family’s marketing effort for the yard sale, one of many held on the summer day in Lawrence. Baxter Spielman said he put signs out along Massachusetts Street, giving notice of the sale and its cause. The family also made use of Facebook to advertise the sale, solicit donors and recruit volunteers. Twenty-five individuals or families responded by donating items for the sale, he said.

“It’s very gratifying,” he said. “I’ve had people tell me they came to the sale because they saw the signs. That made me feel great.”

One of the volunteers was the teen’s godmother, Shannon Reid.

“I’m here to help,” she said. “I’m really proud of Baxter. He felt so affected by something that happened to his larger community that he is working to do something about it.”

At about noon, Burns said the sale was an early success. She and others helping with the yard sale were too busy to count the proceeds or visitors, but there had been about 40 transactions since the sale opened for business at 9 a.m., she said.

“I can tell you we’ve had a steady stream of people,” she said, adding there would plenty of items remaining for Sunday shoppers.

Standing at one of the tables, Jessica Pryor eyed a small toy golf cart and a Transformer truck her 6-year-old son Emmett had selected for purchase. She came to the sale with her children as friends of Baxter and his family, she said. It was her children’s first experience with yard sales, and they were excited about the bargains that could be had, she said.

Attending the sale offered some relief to another bad week of violence in which two black people were killed by police officers and a mass shooting Thursday left five police officers dead in Dallas, Pryor said.

“It’s definitely nice to feel you have a positive action to take when you don’t know what you can do about all the bad news,” she said.