What you want to see at a fundraising event is happy people having fun. At the St Vinnies auction that is exactly what we saw. Executive Director Tracy Peacock was everywhere welcoming friends and other guests and making them all feel welcome.
My wife, Peg recalls as a child hearing her mother Rita on the phone calling St Vinnies looking for bill paying help for people at Holy Rosary. Rita was on the parish counsel. That was over sixty years. What you need for a fundraising event is a definite need being filled. St. Vinnies still provides that help for people in Tacoma and Pierce County. Money raised from the event supports St Vinnie’s Homelessness Prevention & Second-Chance Employment Programs.
Community involvement. People working towards common goals. People helping people. It was all on display at the vintage auction event. Mark and Chelsea Lindquist were the honorary chairs. Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards and Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson addressed the crowd. The audience appreciated both the speakers and their messages.
St. Vinnie staff and volunteers were recognized. They were everywhere. They did set-up, showed off auction items, did clean-up. We left around nine, but I bet they all stayed until midnight.
“Raise the paddle” is one of the tested and true measures of success. People simply raise their bidding cards to donate at different levels. From $5,000 to $25, people gave what they could afford.
Most of the items on display for bidding were donated, not as auction prizes, but simply the items that St. Vinnies receives on a daily basis. However, there were also some items that were donated just for the auction. A condo stay for five nights in Sedona, Arizona brought in nearly a thousand dollars. It was donated by John Lowry of Lowry Rentals. John was present along with his granddaughter. They had a nice time. The granddaughter was our table’s choice for the Dessert Dash runner.
The Dessert Dash is the ending event of the evening. Wonderful cakes and pastries are up for grabs to the tables that bid the most. There are no left overs. New Tacoma Fire Chief Tory Green enjoyed his slice of cake. Our table enjoyed a five layer cake.
The first time event was a success for our community and St. Vinnies by making $61,000. It was fun. People had a good time visiting and bidding . . . and taking home beautiful bargains. We all won big!
