RANCHO PENASQUITOS -- Shoppers attending the annual spring-cleaning garage sale on Stargaze Avenue in Rancho Penasquitos have a chance to do a good deed while picking up good deals Saturday.

After hearing their neighbor Michael Silberhorn had lost his job of about 33 years, homeowners along the street have vowed to give him all proceeds from the day.

"I'm flabbergasted by it, to tell you the truth," Silberhorn said about his neighbors' generosity. "I don't think there's a neighborhood like here in the world. It's amazing how everybody in this neighborhood comes together."

Silberhorn had worked as a manager for a company that makes horticulture and landscaping products. He joined one year after the company was founded, but Silberhorn said he was told March 3 that his position was being eliminated.

"They said they no longer needed me," he said. "Just like that. No warning. No severance package. Not even a thank you from the owners of the business."

Silberhorn, 64, is recovering from a severe back injury and his wife is on disability. He said his medical insurance will run out March 31.

But Silberhorn still has neighbors who remember all the times he has helped him. Neighbor Sue Edwards, who recently moved back to Stargaze after being away for 10 years, remembered how he helped her more than once when the battery in her motor home died.

"Everybody in the neighborhood loves Michael," she said.

Earlier this week, Edwards went door to door asking neighbors if they would be willing to give the proceeds of their upcoming garage sale to Silberhorn, and everybody thought it was a great idea.

"When people go so far out of their way to help you, then you need to give back," she said.

Patty Vasko is among the neighbors looking forward to Saturday.

"I love our neighborhood," she said. "We've lived here 26 years and we have wonderful neighbors. We get together a few times a year and do things. If anybody needs help with anything, everybody shows up."

Silberhorn knows that's true. In November 2007, when he was having a garage sale at his house, Silberhorn fell from a storage unit in his garage. A neighbor from across the street ran over and called for help. As he recovered over the next few months, his neighbors continued to show up with cooked meals and gift certificates while he was out of work.

He has a 10-inch titanium rod in his spine and is still under a doctor's care, but said he has recovered beyond what was expected.

"He said the injury was life-ending, but I didn't want to go yet," Silberhorn said about his doctor's original diagnosis.

The garage sale will begin at about 7 a.m. Saturday in the 9000 block of Stargaze Avenue, and Silberhorn said he plans to sell some of his tools, a 100-gallon aquarium and his beloved framed collection of pins from the first 40 Super Bowls.

"I've got to sell stuff. I have to get rid of things. I have to feed a family," he said, referring to his wife and grown-up daughter.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.