The first ever SMA Charity Yard Sale will be Saturday, March 1, from 7 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Ford Plaza parking lot in Richmond Hill, with barbecue sandwiches available from Crawdawgs Catering.

The event is being hosted by local non-profit SMA Angels Charity and will benefit Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

The charity was created by friends and family of Richmond Hill residents Cassidy and Skylar Swanson; identical twins who were born in 1997 with SMA.

Event coordinator and SMA Angels Charity president Anne Meguiar said this is the first time they’ve held a yard sale fundraiser, but the group is hoping it might turn into an annual event.

"We do one big fundraiser each year, a ball in November," she said. "For the ball last fall, we had a lot of gowns donated to us from the Bridal Mart and we couldn’t fit them all in our silent auction. And a couple of our committee members are moving, so they had items they needed to sell and it just snowballed from there."

Meguiar said the event will have everything you can imagine finding at a yard sale – clothing items, furniture, children’s items, books, etc.

Local businesses are also helping out, donating some of their overstocks to sell during the sale.

There is currently no cure for SMA, the neuromuscular disease that is known as the number one genetic killer of children under the age of two.

The SMA Angels Charity has been in place for the past 10 years, working to raise money for research devoted to finding a cure or treatment, provide funding for medical assistance and better quality of life for children with SMA and to increase awareness and education in the community.

"It started with my granddaughters. After the girls were diagnosed, some people wanted to do some fundraising and we started a charity group from there," Meguiar said.

The group also helps local families with whatever medical supplies or support they may need. Currently, they have donated more than $550,000 directly to SMA research.

"This isn’t a rare disease, but it’s not that common either," she explained. "Since the girls, I believe there have been nine children diagnosed with SMA in our local care area and all have died except for two. The chance of survival is not very good, so that’s why we raise money – to help with the research."

If you can’t make it to the yard sale, feel free to make a contribution by visiting their web site at www.smaangels.org or by sending a donation to SMA Angels Charity, Inc., P.O. Box 308, Richmond Hill, GA 31324.

For more information, call 727-4SMA.