The Auction

Yesterday at 5:30 I sent the following email to my DS1:

Well. son, I have to leave in half an hour for this thing. We have worked our little hearts out and I truly hope it is a success. All the neighbors gathered at the shop at 10:30 this morning and just started working. No one stood around and said, "what do I do?" -- everyone just found something and started. We got home at about 4pm.
We've got great food, beer, wine, champagne, and sodas + water, most of it donated. Our little DJ is awesome. We've got lights and seating and fun games, cool doorprizes and great auction items.
We had very good coverage in the paper yesterday: www.salisburypost.com .In the search window, type in Maggie Blackwell and find it in there.
We planned for 120 guests and so far, we have 105 registered. So many have said they will pay at the door that we are afraid we will have to turn some away. The Fire Marshal certified the building at 145.
I just told (DH) that if this fails, it's MY failure. It was my idea, my implementation, and my decisions.
So, I am taking a deep breath and going to do my makeup. Cross your fingers for us.
Love,
Mom

Now it's the next day. I would have to say it was a ..... success.

I never quite understood the meaning of a "grass roots" effort, but if anything was, this was it. We just decided to do this thing. We blocked out afternoons and went to area businesses and said, "We're building a park and need to raise $32,000. Can you donate anything to our auction?" They gave. and gave.

We had an article in our neighborhood newsletter, asking for new, unused items, or antique items, but not second-hand general items. The neighbors gave. and gave. We had 5 trips to auction: one to North Myrtle Beach, two to Ocean Isle (a week trip and a long weekend) , one to Hilton Head, and one to the mountains. An antique armoire. 3 bikes. gift certificates to every restaurant in town. Haircuts, color, pedicures, manicures, waxing, tanning, personal training, and massage. Games. Big cardboard standup thingies of Star Wars and Nascar. Art. Art lessons. Music lessons. The final item of the night was a scrapbook of the elementary school here in the neighborhood that has long closed. It included school photos of children, letters from people who went there in the early 20's, attendance awards, news articles, all collected over the years. The local folks who had gone to this school, primed themselves to bid on this book.

The team gathered at the shop at 6pm to be sure we were ready. The DJ, bless her heart, had set up in the morning. She was ready. The caterer was ready. The bartenders, two college girls who needed community service hours for school, were ready. Our auctioneer was ready. And we? We were ready.

At 7 folks started coming in. At 8 they were still coming in. From 8 to 9 or 9:30 the place was packed. The food was great. Our loveliest neighbors greeted the guests at the door with a flute of champagne. The music was wonderful. Understanding that the group would be mostly 35 to 50, our little 17-year-old had loaded her IPOD with a zillion tunes including jazz, Cajun, Beatles, Van Morrison, a little reggae, and one or two rap songs. She hooked that tiny thing up to these awesome speakers that had a mike attached for us as we auctioned and gave door prizes. The caterer brought 2 servers in their white coats and they filled and refilled the food. The room was dim, illuminated only by tiny white Christmas lights and the various antique wall sconces in the room.

Our invitation had said anything goes on clothing, from jeans and sneakers to top hat and tails. Well, folks took that to heart. Tuxes. Bermuda shorts and sandals. Beautiful evening gowns. Jeans and Chucks. Plaid shirts.

As is always the case with our neighborhood, we had a great variety of ages represented. Our youngest guests were somewhere in their 20's. Our oldest were, I'd say, 75 or so. And there were lots of us in between.

At 8 the music stopped and we began the auction. I gave door prizes and our auctioneer called the auction for 30 minutes or so. When she needed a break, she called me over and I gave more door prizes. We alternated in this fashion till shortly after 10, when the last item sold.

The faithfuls stayed long after the guests had gone home. The money gal rang up our total. The helpers danced and drank and laughed. We were happy and tired and had never once had lost our focus that we are building a park for our children.

As for me, I was too excited and anxious and busy to see if people were truly having a good time, if it were a really good party. In retrospect, everyone ate a lot and drank a lot and talked a lot and laughed a lot. The place looked great and we did not run out of beer or wine. At the end, all the faithfuls recapped the events of the evening and agreed it was a great "do."

I had been hoping for about $3,000 net to go directly to the park. After repaying the expenses of putting the thing on, our take is a little over $6,000.

It didn't stop there. Today at church, one of our church members approached DH with a check in his hand. "I grew up in Fulton Heights," he said. "I am so proud of what you folks are doing over there -- I want you to have this." It was a check for $500.