In summer of 1974 the first 211 campers came to  Camp Courage.   The camp was nearly $20,000 in debt, and many creditors were becoming concerned.  Thus, was born the World’s Largest Garage Sale.  The idea of Tait Cummins and Jerry Brady (General Manager of WMT), the sale was held November 1 and 2, 1974, at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids and raised $10,000.  Items for the sale came from as far as Charles City and Muscatine and an estimated 750-1000 volunteers worked to make it a success. This sale, along with other smaller fund-raisers, was enough to pull the camp out of debt.  WMT-Radio and WMT-TV also provided desperately needed publicity for what was then a brand new, unknown charity.  The camp also received widespread publicity when it was chosen as the statewide fund-raising projects for Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, The Eagles, VFW, and VFW Auxiliary.  From the World’s Largest Garage Sale, Alfred Egger headed back to his home in Manchester, IA and thought, ‘we can do that here in Manchester, out of my house…thus was born the Manchester Garage Sale…Camp Courageous’ largest fund raiser…more history to come-Charlie