PTO Silent Auction

Every year the Parent Teacher Organization (PTA everywhere else) at Adah's elementary school hosts a silent auction to raise money for school assemblies, materials, playground equipment, and all kinds of other things that the PTO does to supplement the district programs and budget.

Local businesses and citizens donate merchandise, gift certificates, and services that are displayed for bidding at the Friday-night event that is open to the whole community. I was involved with donation procurement, making calls to about 40 businesses. I also put together and donated this "Apple Box" full of some home preserves and dried apples from my favorite local orchard.

My other job was gift certificate display. Basically I got to use my scrapbooking skills to jazz up the simple papers that described all the donations that were not physical items at the auction. I had no idea what a commitment that would turn out to be. I was up until 2 am Friday morning and then spent about 6 hours setting up at the school on Friday.

Here are Maggie and Adah just after entering the gym as the auction began. The tables and walls were full of items up for bidding. Each person at the auction registered for a bidder number and then put their number and dollar bid on the bid sheet next to the item they wanted.

It was A LOT of work, but well worth the effort. Early reports indicate that the auction raised $13,000 for the school!!