The campus 23rd annual auction was held on March 18. Once again, the auction attracted over 400 people of all ages, each one a potential bidder or a student eager for community service.

“I had never been to an auction before, and it was great to see all of the support that our school has,” Tara Albrechtson, student body president, said. “I now have a new perspective of all that goes into making sure that our school has the funds it needs to keep operating. I am even more aware of how huge of a blessing it is to be here.”

The 2006 event grossed over $150,000, an amount that will be put to a couple of uses.

?Twenty thousand of the profits goes into the general school fund,? Tim Wilkins, superintendent, said. ?All the rest will go towards building the new facility.?

At each auction table, there was an array of donated goods, from sweets to picture frames to children?s stories. Excited bidders quickly scribbled their numbers last minute auctions while the student volunteers filled in the blanks and helped the auction to run smoothly.

?There had to have been over a hundred people there,? volunteer Calvin Smith, ?07, said. ?It was really hot and stuffy in the gym because of all the bodies, but exciting nonetheless.?

The event included a dinner comprised of steak, vegetables and potatoes during both a live and silent auction.

?We got more comments on food than any other year,? Wilkins said. ?Even the student volunteers were the most efficient we have ever had. For the first time, we finished our input work into the computer before the dinner was served, so the entire staff got to eat with everyone else!?

Of the number of students that were at the function to help out, some thought the experience would be fun while others attended strictly for community service.

?I only went to the auction because they were offering full community service,? Janae Keys-Bramlett, ?09, said. ?It ended up being fun, though, because we got to talk and visit with a bunch of people.?

The annual auction and dinner is the campus? biggest school-wide fundraising event.

?This year, we grossed nearly $151,000,? Wilkins said, ?but that will not be the final number, because of the way the auction is run. The highest bidder can take their item, and we bill them later. If they want, they can just decide that they do not want the item and send it back. We have also had people just donate money when they get the bill.?

What Wilkins refers to as a ?trust system? has been used since the first auction. It has not once proved to be defective. The evidence is the great amount of money brought in by bidders and donations.

Despite the money brought in for the school, the overall sum hardly makes a dent in the total income.

?If you took a pie chart and put everything that we earn in a year on it, the auction would hardly even be visible,? Wilkins said. ?There are so many other places that the school gets money that the auction is just a sliver on the chart. This does not mean that the auction is small or that its funds are small. It just means that there are a lot of other places to get money.?

For more information on the annual auction, call 299-1695, ext. 100 or visit the school?s website at www.fresnochristian.com.