A group of Merrill Gardens women recently turned jewelry into gold — or cold, hard cash.

Their recent costume jewelry sale made $701 for the Salvation Army Renton Rotary Food Bank.

That’s a pretty good profit for strings of beads going for $1, $2 and $3.

“I didn’t expect that much,” Louise Bertozzi said. “I thought it was wonderful. I just couldn’t believe how generous people were.”

The Feb. 18 sale was the 90-year-old Bertozzi’s idea. She organized the sale in honor of Anna Thurston, a Merrill Gardens resident who died in early January. Thurston’s niece donated her aunt’s necklaces, rings and things to the group at the downtown Renton retirement community. Thurston’s son was a jeweler, so she had a steady supply of bling.

“That started everybody here,” Bertozzi said. “People brought jewelry, people brought cash, that’s how it started to roll.”

“The family at Merrill Gardens went full force,” she added.

Outsiders also helped.

Neighbor and friend Beverly Starkovich, 78, said she probably donated most of the jewelry.

“I’d been collecting it for years and decided I didn’t need it anymore,” she said.

None of her donations were solid gold, but just “earrings, necklaces, a little bit of everything.”

Most of the $701 came from jewelry sales. That money was raised not only from sales of the strings of beads, but also from sales of the nice things, on the “make-an-offer table,” Bertozzi said.

Only about $100 of the sale’s proceeds were donations, much from men living at Merrill Gardens.

Most the jewelry buyers were Merrill Gardens residents, but Bertozzi said the sale also attracted some outsiders, who were perhaps alerted to the sale by the sign posted in a front window.

Leftover jewelry was donated to the Renton Eagles.

Bertozzi said she selected the Salvation Army Renton Rotary Food Bank as a beneficiary “’cause people are hungry. Everybody’s in dire need of a little food.”

Renton Salvation Army Captain Terry Masango said he encourages others to follow the lead of the women at Merrill Gardens. Donations to the food bank have declined since December.

He said a jewelry sale is a “unique way, an interactive way, to have a great time and fellowship while raising funds for a great cause.”

Bertozzi enjoyed organizing the jewelry sale, but said she isn’t planning another one.

“Not me. I did my duty,” she said.