Big Time Two Auctions in One Day
Posted: December 12, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 CommentToday was Lynn and my annual Chinese Auction Party at my house and the Families Moving forward Annual Gala where I was the Host and Auctioneer. Talk about two differing auctions all on the same day!
Chinese Auction is like a white elephant, but the gifts need to be good. I have been doing this party for about 22 years, the last 15 or 16 with Lynn. It is one of my favorite parties of the year. We raised the dollar limit on what people could spend on their gift, basically because Lynn has been buying Kai lotion for years blowing past the dollar limit. I never care what the dollar limit is because I usually make my gift. This year I made four painted Christmas balls and they were a highly stollen gift.
We had a French lunch of Croque Monsier and salad. So I had to make those this morning before everyone got to the party. I would have been fine, but I was rewriting my script I had just received for the Families Moving Forward Auction, that was tonight.
Months ago my friend from church, Carol Mansfield asked me if I would be the auctioneer for their Gala. I was happy to help. I had a couple of meetings with them and she was right, they were leaving money on the table. At last years auction they were thrilled when they blew by their goal of $17,000 and got $25,000. I told them they needed to raise their goal to $100,000. I’m not going to do an event that is not trying to raise at least that much.
They had a generous donor who gave them $50,000 and we used that as a challenge grant if we raised the $100,000. So the total for the night we were looking to raise $150,000, which we did and then some.
There is nothing more fun than raising a lot of money for an organization doing great work. Jennings’s Brody had donated her blueberry farm for a chefs dinner for 25 with Gray Brooks of Pizzeria Toro and Littler being the chef. Well Matt Kelly of Vin Rouge and Arron Benjamin of Gocciolona jumped on board at the last minute so we were able to sell that dinner for $12,000 with lots of bidding. Oh I love being an Auctioneer for charity.
It was a very fun day. One I can’t repeat every week, but am sure glad it happened today.
Less Dana, More Good 
Dana, Bruce and I attended the Families Moving Forward dinner—he is a member of their board. It was the first time we had witnessed you in action! What a wonderful job you did and your motivation encouraging contributions was exemplar (what a beautiful word)!
Thank you for also advising how to best set up the greatest return. It is an excellent organization.