It’s the season for school auction/dinner events, including a few more this weekend. Among them, the Holy Rosary auction last night – which wound up raising money for another area school, too! The story is told by auction emcee and West Seattle journalist Gregg Hersholt, after the jump:
Something pretty extraordinary happened (Saturday night) at the Holy Rosary School auction – I know, because I was the emcee – and I thought it would be cool to get the word out.
First of all, the level of bidding by the parents and supporters was more than I have ever seen in the 25+ years I have been involved in Holy Rosary auctions. Mundane items like free parking in front of the church for Mass, or class art projects, or the chance to climb the bell tower with the pastor went in the $2000 range consistently. (There were 65 items, so this really added up).
But at the end of the evening, when you’d think most people were tapped out, they showed a video and had the principal of neighboring Holy Family School in White Center get up and talk a little about their fight to stay open while so many of their kids come from impoverished families, and their urgent need for new textbooks for the school.
Then the auctioneer (Pat Cashman) asked people for donations. They raised $20,000 for the neighboring parish! The auction chairwoman was in tears afterward. Makes you proud to live in West Seattle!
By the way, if you haven’t heard, Gregg has just started a new radio job – which is Seattle’s loss, as he’s on the air at KXL in Portland – but as last night proved, that doesn’t mean West Seattle’s seen the last of him.
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