Community, generosity and fellowship are just a few words that describe the FCS Auction, March 13. For the past 30 years, FC has put on an auction around spring time to raise money for the school. The 2013 auction was described as one of the best auctions so far.
With many hands helping throughout the night, the event was considered a success. The silent auction began at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 6:30 p.m. and the live auction which started at 7:30 p.m. People bustled through the doors to gaze around the vast amount of items that were up for bidding.
Every table at the auction, except for one, was sold out. The auction brought in a record breaking $126,315. The money is used in multiple ways but is focused on filling the space caused from tuition and the amount caused to run the school. Principal Todd Bennett expands on the use of the money and where exactly it gets distributed.
“The goal for the auction is to raise enough money to help us fill the gap financially,” Bennett said. “The way the school is financed is through tuition dollars and donations. Then what we do is we offer some people financial assistance so our ministry can go to more than just those people who have the means to send their kids here. Because we do things like that there’s a gap between how much we bring in from tuition and how much it costs to run the school.”
Although money is a main contributor in supporting FC, Superintendent Debbie Siebert, is also very appreciative of those who lend a hand or give their time to help improve the school.
“We have lots of people who donate their time or their talents here at FC,” Siebert said. “That’s a huge part of what makes this organization a success. Money, time and talents are really what helps the school out the most. When we put up the football stadium, we had three men who gave their time and ability to help us out. They donated the resources necessary to build the stadium to help us accomplish the task.”
Siebert feels that prayer is another major factor in helping out the school.
The school also counts on the different gifts God has blessed the FC community with, since not everyone has a lot of money to give.
“Prayer is another major factor in helping out Fresno Christian,” Siebert said. “We have a mom’s prayer group that meets once a week to pray over the school and students. Having the support of the people who pray for the school is amazing and really shows us how blessed we are.”
Tara Luginbill, mother of four children at FC, has been offering her hand of service ever since her oldest daughter, Maddie Luginbill, ’16, was in kindergarten. This is Lugunbill’s second year being apart of the Auction Committee. This year she helped with the set up of desserts for the evening. Lugunbill talks about the great things the auction provides besides just items.
“The auction really provided families with a fun night out and a great night of fellowship,” Lugunbill said. “My favorite part was the live auction because it’s fun to see people bidding against each other. The auction is a great way for people to invest in the school. Whether donating items, baking desserts, bidding on items or giving there time, it’s all for one purpose and that is what’s so great.”
A feeling of generosity filled the atmosphere for Siebert. She felt a strong sense of fellowship among the attendees, throughout the night. Siebert was inspired by the spirit of giving among the FC community.
“It was just a generous spirit,” Siebert said. It was just a spirit of giving, not just of the people’s money but also of themselves and to one another. It just felt like the room was friendlier and people were more open to making relationships or connections with people they may have not known before. The atmosphere just felt different; it was a feeling of community and cooperation and a sense of a common goal. Everybody was working together to accomplish that goal.”
The host for the night was Tom Sommers who is in charge of Christian Business Men Committee (CBMC). This committee is an international organization that helps connect businessmen to one another and to Christ. Sommers speaks of his time at the auction and what it was like hosting for the night.
“The night was fantastic,” Sommers said. “It was a great honor to work with Debbie Siebert, Todd Bennett and Marvell French. My friends tell me about all the wonderful things that happen at FC so its something that I believe in. Mrs. Witters? class blanket with all the pictures of the children was my favorite part of the auction. I’ve helped with the auction several times over the past three years. It has been a great experience.”
There are four different parts of the auction where you can bid on items. There is the dessert table, certificate wall, silent auction and live auction. One of the items on the certificate wall was particularly popular. To get one’s name painted on to one of the curbs in the FC parking lot for the 2013-2014 school year was up for grabs. Many bidders put down their money for this privilege. Yet something unique happened with this item, which Bennett explains.
“There was kind of a bidding war on the reserved parking spot,” Bennett said. “The bidding was close to $1,000 and, Mr. Beal, who bought that prize last year, said, ‘Look why don’t you just say anybody who spends $1,000 will get a reserved parking spot.’ We wound up selling three of them. It was pretty awesome.”
To add to the enjoyment of the night, dinner was served at the auction by Pardini’s. Salad, pot roast with a mushroom gravy, scalloped potatoes and green beans were the evenings choice of meal.
Another fun factor to the night was the raffle that happened through out the night. Prizes ranged from dinner certificates to a grand prize of $500. Certain students at FC were asked to sell raffle tickets through out the night. Each raffle ticket cost $20 and many people were generous in buying more than one ticket.
Once an attendee purchased a raffle ticket, students were advised to give a plastic beaded necklace to the buyer. The purpose of this was to signify to other sellers that they already purchased a ticket. Junior Emily Shakeshaft, had a jolly night using her salesman skills. One of Shakeshaft’s favorite part was interacting with the different people there and trying to convince them to buy a ticket.
“The auction was so fun,” Shakeshaft said. “I really enjoyed working with my partner [Stephan Melendez] to raise money for the school. I got to mingle with peole and have great conversations with them. I liked getting to know new people and people watching, it was really interesting. I think the best part though was breaking the record. I heard that the raffle staff broke a record and we never have sold so many raffle tickets before; that’s amazing.”
The evening started dwindling down around 9 p.m.. As people started leaving, students who play FC sports started arriving. The athletes and coaches came to help take down the night. Siebert praised the people who came and helped, not only the ones who helped tear down the night but also those who gave their time to set up the auction as well.
“At the end of the auction we are usually exhausted becuase we have been going at it for two days straight,” Siebert said. “The students who helped this year for clean up were such a help. Normally, we stay until around 12 midnight and I’m just beat by the end of the night. This year though, clean up took like twenty minutes. The students were so respectful, thats another thing I really noticed this year. It was a blessing and really wonderful.”
The Holy Spirit was also a major factor in the making of the auction. The role that God had in the auction was very evident, as told by Siebert. She believes that without his helping hand in the preparation, the auction would have been very different. Unity is what was felt through out this whole process which goes along with the schools motto for this year, “We Are One: Standing Firm.”
“The auction committee starts meeting in January,” Siebert said. “Every time we begin a meeting we pray over the auction. We pray that the Lord would prepare the hearts of the people to come together because we can’t have a party without people. So we pray for the Lord to go before us and for the Holy Spirit to bring scenes of unity because it’s a spirtiual thing. This year it was very clear, and everyone understood, that we had one heart and one mind and one purpose and that only happens through the power of the Holy Spirit. To be in unity is not our nature so the Lord moving on our behalf was absolutely evident.”
Editor’s Note: Check back soon for an added video.
This writer can be reached via Twitter: @han_avila. Follow The Feather via Twitter: @thefeather.
For more features, read the March 21 article, International team presents message through abilities.
