HOULTON, Maine — The 58th Annual Houlton Rotary Radio and TV Auction will take place Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, November 25-27. The event will air from 6-10:30 p.m. each night on WHOU Radio 100.1 FM and on Houlton Cable Channel 13. The auction is held at Watson Hall at the Episcopal Church on Main Street and the public is welcome to attend.
The auction is the major annual fundraiser for the Houlton Rotary Club. A supplement detailing the auction items for each half hour, special items, phone numbers and store room hours is in today’s issue of the Houlton Pioneer Times. The supplement sponsor for this year is Houlton Water Company. The information is also available on the Internet at www.houltonrotary.org. There will be links from the web site to view the auction live on the Internet. Details will be provided on the site. This year’s online sponsor is College Transitions.
Each year, the Rotary Auction in addition to their many other charities funds a major project or projects. The major projects for the 2013 auction are: funding for a new basketball court at the playground at Houlton Elementary School; supporting the Backpacks For Kids Project, which provides food for children; funding a new storage building for McGill’s Community Band; and continued support for the Dominican Clean Water Project.
Other projects that will benefit from auction proceeds include the Aid For Kids organization, Sarah’s House, Adopt-A-Block, the Bird Farm greenhouse project, Quantum Learning program, Dollars For Scholars, Cary Library, Rotary Youth Exchange, Student Recognition Day and the Salvation Army.
The auction will feature a list of items for bid on each half hour (6-10:30 p.m. — nine half hours per night). Bidding on these items is only accepted during their individual half hours with the high bidder being awarded the item at the close of the half hour’s bidding. Corporate sponsors for each night of this year’s auction are Crawford Homes, Madigan Health Care Services and Severson, Hand and Nelson. Items featured in the half hours include homemade foods, gift certificates, oil changes, potatoes, hand crafted items, and a selection of other merchandise.
Nightly special items are also featured. These items may be bid on throughout a given night. Successful bidders at the close of each night will be awarded these items. The nightly special items include Laminated Strand Lumber (LSL), a Paper White Kindle, a Google Nexus, a John Deere Tractor for children, a Trollbead bracelet, a circular saw, a coffee brewer, a visit from Santa, watches, cords of wood, loads of loam and gravel, watches, tuition, lifetime fair passes, a CB radio, a snowmobile bib, photography, golf lessons, concert tickets, a hand made basket, 20 circuit panel, Christmas trees with $100 in scratch tickets, a furnace tune-up, Vera Bradley sunglasses, advertising packages, gift certificates and a variety of other items.
There are also 3-night special items, which will be featured throughout the auction and this year range up to $14,300. The 3-night specials this year include an 18-foot by 24-foot camp package from Ward Log Homes, a yard tractor, area rugs, a truckload of firewood, bundles of OSB and LSL, a rifle, a watch, a leather jacket and 1/2 helmet, wood pellets, 100 gallons of fuel oil, a walk-behind trimmer, tires, 16 hours of carpentry, round-trip airline tickets, and two iPad airs. The successful bidders at the close of bidding on Wednesday evening will be awarded these items.
The retail value of the items donated by area businesses and individuals is over $65,000 and add-on items are still coming in. Add-on items can be contributed by contacting a Rotarian. For this year’s auction, the retail values for all items as listed in the auction supplement have been rounded to the nearest whole dollar.
Bids can be made for any items by calling the Rotary Auction room at 532-4585. Those outside the local area but in state may call toll free at 1-855-376-8279 or 1-855-3ROTARY.
The Rotary Club is asking bidders to make minimum bids of at least 50 percent of the listed value for the items. Some items may carry a higher minimum, which will be indicated in the supplement. Bids will be taken in whole dollar increments to assist programming and tracking of bids. This year’s phone sponsor is First Wind.
Individuals calling in need to give the Rotarian on the phone the item number they are bidding on and the amount of their bid along with their name and phone number. The bids are then posted on a status board. The status board will be available for viewing on line.
The bids are subsequently taken to the on-air auctioneers who will read the bids and indicate if they are high, low or even. The auction room is located in Watson Hall and the public is welcome to visit. Bids can be placed from the auction room until 3 minutes before the close of each half hour. No bids are accepted from the auction room after the 3-minute bell has been rung.
Successful bidders can pick up their items at the auction storeroom sponsored this year by the Katahdin Valley Health Center. The storeroom is also located at Watson Hall in the Episcopal Church on Main Street. The storeroom is open daily during the auction from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and is open the two days following the auction. Specific hours are listed in the auction supplement. All items should be picked up by the close of the storeroom on Friday, Nov. 29 at 5 p.m. The storeroom phone number is 532-4620. When picking up items, individuals are encouraged to give their name to the storeroom clerk and bring a list of their item numbers with the amount of the successful bids to match up with the storeroom records. Items must be paid for in full at the time of pick up and payment must be by cash or check.
Members of the local Rotary Club run all aspects of the auction including serving as on-air auctioneers. The Rotarian auctioneer schedule is as follows: Monday, 6 p.m., Amy Hocking and Lori Weston; 6:30 p.m., Paul Adams and Joyce Fitzpatrick; 7 p.m., Andy Mooers and Jon Harbison; 7:30 p.m., Scott Dionne and Jim Brown; 8 p.m., Torrey Sylvester and Forrest Barnes; 8:30 p.m., Matt Nightingale and Gene Conlogue; 9 p.m., Tony Bowers and Jane Torres; 9:30 p.m., Dana Delano and Jon McLaughlin; 10 p.m., Scott White & Ryan Bushey;
Tuesday — 6 p.m., Amy Hocking and Lori Weston; 6:30 p.m., Marguerite Lawler and Jane Torres; 7 p.m., Paul Adams and Jon McLaughlin; 7:30 p.m., Matt Nightingale and Andy Mooers; 8 p.m., Gene Conlogue and Butch Asselin; 8:30 p.m., Torrey Sylvester and Forrest Barnes; 9 p.m., Dana Delano and Scott White; 9:30 p.m., Scott Dionne & Julie Delano; and 10 p.m., Steve Nelson & Ryan Bushey.
Wednesday — 6 p.m., Amy Hocking & Lori Weston; 6:30 p.m., Tony Bowers & Alan Lindquist; 7 p.m., Joe Fitzpatrick and Leigh Cummings; 7:30 p.m., Matt Nightingale and Tammie Mulvey; 8 p.m., Torrey Sylvester and Chris Anderson; 8:30 p.m., Andy Mooers and Jon McLaughlin; 9 p.m., Scott White and Jane Torres; 9:30 p.m., Dana Delano and Frank Thompson; 10 p.m., Amy Hocking and Lori Weston. The auctioneer listing is subject to change.
Also part of the annual auction is the Boy and the Boot Endowment Program. Individuals may call in during the auction to pledge a Boy and the Boot statue. The pledge represents a $1,000 contribution to the endowment fund of the Houlton Regional Health Services Foundation, which benefits local healthcare. Some businesses also offer payroll deduction programs for the pledges. At the completion of the pledge, the contributor receives a limited edition pewter replica of the Boy with the Leaking Boot Statue.
In addition, $500 worth of No. 2 fuel oil donated by Dead River Company will be given away during the auction. Tickets for the fuel oil are available from any Rotarian and will be available at the auction. Tickets are $1.00 each or books of 6 for $5.00. The fuel oil will be delivered anywhere within the Houlton-Patten Dead River district. The drawing will be held during the final night of the auction
The Houlton Rotary Club extends its thanks to all of the generous businesses and individuals who contributed items to this year’s auction and encourage the public to call in and enjoy the auction by bidding on the many items available.
Further information on the Rotary Radio and TV Auction is available by contacting auction chair Amy Hocking, club president Lori Weston or any member of the Houlton Rotary Club.
