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2008 Silent Auction the Biggest and Most Successful Ever
Over the past dozen years the Kangaroos have built a club with a true sense of community. We have a number of events that are separate from our football and netball teams, which makes us truly a club. In the past several years, one of the events that is the most anticipated is the Silent Auction. Last year, we had a great event and raised a few dollars to support our club and teams as we headed into 2008. That event was a success because two truly magnificent women took over the helm and put their signature on the event (relieving the overburdened president, who was extremely grateful to pass the baton). Their work in creating a successful event is what makes the Kangaroos truly a club: when the wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, mothers, fathers, friends, etc. all step up to make the club a great place to be. It not only distributes the workload, but the events themselves are a lot more fun.
Molly Nemeth and Meredith Quigley are those two magnificent women. Forget that their husbands play for the footy team. That is merely tangential. They don't just "do" this job, they attack it with vivacity and verve. Watching the upstairs room at Platinum Sponsor Sportsman's Grille fill up Saturday night was truly a sight to behold. And I am not talking about the people. True, it was fantastic to see our long time members like Steve Connelly, Kelly Noser, and Adam Carter enjoying themselves and reveling in being part of the club. No, I am talking about the almost absurd amount of items they and their team raised for the auction. We had planned to use the eating tables, then quickly realized that was never going to cut it, so we took over the pool tables. We filled two without thinking about it (about we had last year) and still the items were pouring in. When it was all said and done, we filled five pool tables with auction items. And there was no space left!
This auction had more gift certificates and gift cards than all previous auctions combined (no joke). We must have had four dozen bottles of wine. We had artwork, gift baskets, jewelry, computer gear, games/CDs/DVDs. We had footballs, Sounds tickets, Predators tickets, and even airline tickets. And I lost track of how many pies, cakes, and cookies that were donated. We had a set of golf clubs. We even had a hunting trip. No doubt I am forgetting at least a few items. It took the crew over 90 minutes to get everything setup. I am still in awe at what they accomplished.
After the Awards ceremony, the room was still packed as the auction took center stage. I was wondering if we would be able to sell everything and what a pain it would be to hold any unsold items until next year. Boy was I mistaken! There must have been an average of 10 bids on EVERY item. And as with our prior silent auctions, as we counted down the final minutes, the frantic checking and rechecking and even some negotiations were quite entertaining to watch. Mercifully, the auction closed and the counting began. Meredith and Molly, our Superheroes, sorted and added, collected and distributed, counted and counted again. For a little perspective, the 2007 auction raised $1,361 on a record number of items, but not a record amount of money; that goes to the 2004 Auction that reached the $2,300 level.
When the dust settled, and the final tally came in, I about fell out of my chair (not to worry, though, I did not spill a drop of beer - because some things are important). The 2008 Silent Auction raised $3,276! Now that is a record! Congratulations to the Nashville Kangaroos. This really sets up the club nicely as we close out 2008 and head into 2009. Thank you to everyone for being so generous in this year's auction. And a gigantic thank you to both Molly and Meredith and their team! Now, ladies, you can start planning for the 2009 Silent Auction (and for those of you who think that is pure tongue in cheek, they really have started planning 2009 already!) I think we will need a bigger room!!
We will post the full list of items (with donors) and the winners shortly. In the meantime, we are sending out our thank you letters to our donors (quite a few obviously) and we can turn our attention to having a nice relaxing Holiday Party at La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant, our last event of the year. See you then!
