It’s hard to believe, but the Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching, albeit about a week later than it was last year. And going hand-in-hand with the holiday is the 58th annual Houlton Rotary Radio and TV Auction.
This year’s auction takes place Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, November 25-27, running from 6-10:30 p.m. each night on WHOU Radio 100.1 FM and on Houlton Cable Channel 13. Rotarians will gather at Watson Hall at the Episcopal Church on Main Street for three full nights of fun.
Each year, Rotarians select either one or a handful of major projects to help support. This year, the auction will help raise funds for a new basketball court being built at the playground at Houlton Elementary School. Additional projects include the Backpacks For Kids Project, which provides food for children; a new storage building for McGill’s Community Band; and continued support for the Dominican Clean Water Project.
For those who are no longer living in the area, the auction can be streamed online through the Rotary’s website (www.houltonrotary.org). While you can’t place bids online, you can still listen in as local Rotarians rattle off the names of people bidding on items and whether it is a “good, even or low bid.”
Hearing the names of friends and relatives is part of the charm of the auction. As a child, hearing your name read off on the radio for bidding on a particular item was exhilarating and we made a game of it at our house. Once a bid was placed, I would have to listen carefully to see if someone outbid me and then have to decide if I was going to go higher on an item.
I can admit it. I still do the same thing today. Although it is much easier to keep track of your bid via the Internet, there is a bit of nostalgia in taking the Rotary booklet (which appears in this week’s edition of The Houlton Pioneer Times), highlighting which item you want to bid on and then listening closely to see if you were successful. My wife doesn’t quite understand it, and I can only seem to drum up interest in my kids for about an hour or so.
The auction is a great place to purchase a wide variety of gifts for the upcoming season. The auction features everything from home-made jams, pickles, pies, rolls, cookies, breads and other desserts too numerous to list.
Personally, I go giddy over the pizzas. If I don’t come away with at least one pizza from each of my favorite shops, I somehow feel that I missed out. So chances are, if you are bidding on those items, expect to see a little bit of competition from me again this year.
Many do not know that the general public is welcome to come see the auction in action each night. Bids can be placed from tables at Watson Hall, up until three minutes at the end of each half hour. It can be a fascinating experience to watch Rotarians answer phones, write down names and bids on tiny slips of paper, and then place them on the same conveyor belt system that has been used for decades. And there is usually a fair amount of food to sample as well, which is always a good thing.
So, take some time this coming Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday to participate in this year’s auction. Not only are you purchasing locally-made products, but you are also helping out some great causes. Just stay away from the pizzas … those are mine.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for the Houlton Pioneer Times. He can be reached at pioneertimes @nepublish.com or 532-2281.
