To see our own Smith family, Reg and Sue, cranking the Melbourne raffle barrel was entertaining enough but to observe the behind the scenes high drama of bidding for the Janet Wang Restaurant dinner for 6 in the silent auction was precious.
Proceeds from the raffle were more than twice the value of earlier years. There were over 70 ticket buyers with our own Ian Ross winning the $2,000 bike prize – there should be some great Christmas presents for his family this year from the My Ride Collingwood bike store who continue their support for us.
This year our auction was silent due to us meeting in the virtual space, but the 100 bids created a roar as the Christmas cakes, wine, dental check-ups, wills, fruit & nuts, outdoor clothing, celebrity chairs and hotel room nights also raised more than twice the value of earlier years! 14 members kindly donated the 24 auction items. Thanks to all the donors and the bidders!
And to top it all off, we are so proud of the generous Rotarians that decided to just donate for the kid’s scholarships outside of the raffle and auction. In fact some of the auction bidders even donated all their auction losing bid money to the cause or gave the excess of their auction budget above their winning bid value to the cause. How good is that?
And the result so far is that we will have over $20,000 for the Learning for Life scholarships in 2020, despite Covid-19. We are also working on a fun social event in November that might even add to the total.
