Writings

Missions Benefit Auction 2004 - Day #1

Today we kicked off this year's missions benefit auction for the yearly missions trip at my church. Every year we have a missions trip to various foreign locations in the summer. This year we are going to El Salvador. In the past we have been to Mexico, Alaska, and Trinidad. In the months prior to the auction we travel to local businesses seeking donations to the auction. We auction off all kinds of items: new merchandise, gift certificates, and anything anyone might care to donate (ie. get rid of). It is always a very successful fundraiser for the trips, covering many of the costs associated with the trip. The auction has been split across two days for the last few years because we have such a large number of items to auction off. We started today at 6:00 and finished at 9:30. We'll likely be going late into the evening tomorrow as well.

The building filled with people very quickly tonight. I was pleasantly surprised to see a very good turnout; there were not many empty seats. The bidding seemed to go rather well. I wasn't paying very close attention, but many of the items were going for good prices from what I could tell.

There was plenty of help there tonight. It's customary for those going on the trip to volunteer as runners during the auction. Although, there are a lot of us, so it's impractical for us all to be up standing in line and holding items at any one time. So, I ended up running for only a handful of items tonight. It might have seemed that I was sitting most the time and not helping, but after doing this a few years I know better than to stand up there unnecessarily. ;-)

When I got a chance, I went over to the church to rehearse a marimba concerto I'm working on for the singspiration service later this month.

The auction is always a bit tiring, and I need to be up there for the start at 8am. Tomorrow will likely be a long day. Despite the few hours tonight, it doesn't seem we made much of a dent into the huge amount of stuff to sell. I'll have to leave for a few hours tomorrow because of a rehearsal, but I'll still be busy there much of the day. Despite the hard work, it's worth it. The auction raises a lot of funds for the trip, and is a nice event regardless. Now I need to get some rest for tomorrow.