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Talk about turning trash into treasure.

National Honor Society students at Fox Chapel Area organized a rummage sale that translated into a $2,000 donation to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Spearheaded by 2010 graduates Olga Graves and Stacy Reader, the sale was held in spring after the club's 250 members secured donations from students and the community.

"We basically lived at the school in order to collect the stuff and deliver it to my house for storage," said Reader, 18, now a freshman at Boston College.

"There was one week where we came to school an hour and a half early just to sort through everything," she said.

Staff sponsor Suzanne Miller said the club chose to benefit pancreatic cancer after reading that the disease is the least funded and most deadly of all cancers.

She said the sale served as a public awareness vehicle, too, because club members distributed pancreatic cancer statistics to shoppers.

Graves, a political science major at John Carroll University, chose to coordinate a rummage sale because it's something that could become a tradition, she said.

"There are a lot of things that are done and maybe done too much," she said. "This could be a good one as years go on that would grow, and hopefully, new officers will keep it going."

Donations came in droves. There were typical items, such as clothes, toys and holiday decorations.

"But there were really unique things too. We got a dollhouse, a train set and an organ," she said. "We didn't even begin to know how to price this stuff."

Traditionally, National Honor Society members are expected to volunteer in the community, and many used the sale set-up to fulfill that service.

Leftover items were donated to Goodwill, Miller said. She credited Graves and Reader for the success of the fundraiser.

"The service is only as good as the officers," she said. "These two were excellent."

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