PS8 Community Springs Into Auction
Last Thursday over 200 members of our community -- parents, teachers, friends, family, neighbors - gathered at Plymouth Church and made history. This year's PTA Spring Auction is officially a record-breaker. While the final numbers won't be certain until all winning-bid checks are received, it seems very likely that well over $35,000 was raised, almost doubling the success of last year's event.
Of course running an event of this nature involves some costs too, but these were kept to a minimum, less than $1000 - especially due to the work of volunteers and many generous contributions of food and beverage - so the vast majority of these funds will go directly to our current $290,000 fund raising goal.
The evening began with a silent auction - deftly overseen by parent volunteer Stephanie Cohen Glass - for all manner of goodies from play-dates with teachers; swimming, ice-skating and violin lessons; sculptures and artworks; sailing in the NY Harbor; and Prada bags; to a half-case of wine; Cyclones tickets; children's toys, books and clothes; meals in local restaurants; and many more. A very big thank you to everyone who donated something. A special thank you goes to parent volunteer Natalie Fried who somehow singlehandedly managed to bring in 40 of the auctioned items.
This was one of those rare occasions when shopping is done with a glass of wine in one hand and a plate of food in the other. For this our community owes a big thank you to The River Cafe for helping stock the bar; to Noodle Pudding, Almondine, Forage, Heights Falafel, iCi, Monty Q' and Tazze and Busy Chef for the delicious spread; and to parent volunteers Wendy Azzouni, Dominique Mason and Rebecca Smart for arranging the food and adding decorations, which included PS 8 lumieres made by parent volunteers last year. If we left any out, please forgive us and thank you to you too!
Thanks go also to PS8 Dad and musician Jeff Newell and his talented band for jazzing-up the ambiance, and also to parent team Mark Hubatsek and Tracy Atkinson for volunteering their time and talent to make a gorgeous and compelling short film about enrichment programs in action at PS8 to help set the scene for some serious bidding.
All in all 130 items were up for grabs, ranging in winning bid size from a steal-of-the-event $25 French class to a whopping $2,800 for a child to be PS8 Principal for the Day.
Thanks also go to parents Georgie Stout and Susan Sellers whose firm not only obtained / donated numerous items (love those Prada bags) but also designed our Spring Auction posters and invitations, and printed them (we're fortunate to have them as the co-chairs of the Communications Committee).
Talking of the communications committee, yet more thanks go to Aki Tucca and Nathalie Schueller for bringing their professional skills to our event; they spent the evening with their camera-equipment at the ready and have captured well over a hundred wonderful photographs, many of which are already posted here and are well worth a look.
Auctioneer Steven Ringold, wearing an engine-red pin-stripe suit, did a fantastic job during the live auction portion of the evening of encouraging bidders to bid often and generously. (First item on the block was a vintage PS8 button which Joyce Farley was given, donated and modelled - which went for several hundred dollars!)
click photo for larger view
The PTA Executive Board thanked Todd and Stephanie Glass for all of their hard work organizing the event and presented them with flowers. On behalf of the PTA, the board also presented Joyce Farley with flowers and champaign in recognition of all of the work she has done over the past few years, from managing the books for Raindrops (for those who don't know Raindrops was an after school program for pre-k students run by the PTA) to organizing our raffles and being our Boxtops coordinator. She was an active volunteer for every event and fund raiser the PTA has had in the last couple of years. We will truly miss her as she and her family make a new life in Montclair, NJ.
Principal Seth Phillips also gave a speech to honor and thank David Goldsmith, past PTA President and current Chair of the SLT Committee, for his commitment, involvement and enthusiasm to everything and anything PS 8. David's daughter Isabel will be graduating from PS 8 this year and the PTA wanted any opportunity to publicly thank David for helping to make PS 8 the outstanding school it is though his PTA work. David was given a plaque which reads "PS 8 PTA 2008 Award. David Rah-Rah Goldsmith. Involved - Committed - Enthusiastic. The Ultimate PS 8 Cheerleader.You have touched our hearts".
Last but foremost, on behalf of the PTA Executive Board and the entire PS8 community, huge, huge respect and thanks to Fundraising Committee Chair Todd Glass. In between running his own business and being Dad to double the # of children he started the year with, Todd has invested countless hours in fundraising for PS8. It's worth remembering that in addition to helping double the success of Spring Auction, in the Fall our Read-A-Thon event also set new records and Todd had a heap to do with that too. Our community has no shortage of fundraising ideas. What makes the difference is people like Todd who take ownership of ideas and volunteer to make them happen. Thank you, Todd. Thank you.
Click here to view the image gallery for the auction event.
Our community has more fund raising ideas than you can shake a stick of chalk at; what makes the difference is when everyone collaborates to turn ideas into real outcomes for our school. Thank you to the many people who made this event such a success, from volunteers and donors to the many generous bidders, and once more our apologies to anyone that we might have missed by name.
Posted on: April 12, 2008
