St. James Catholic School to host 34th $10,000 Give-A-Way
St. James Catholic School hosts its annual $10,000 Give-A-Way and Silent Auction at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at 210 At the Tracks.
This will be the 34th year the school has held this fundraiser. It was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve been doing it every year up until last year, but the year before last was our 33rd event,” said Principal John Parker, “It has become a major event all throughout town and there’s been a lot of different people come to compete.”
Tickets are $100 for two people, and the school reports 400 sold thus far. The event will feature a catered meal from Local Joe’s Restaurant that includes entrees such as herb roasted pork tenderloin and smoked chicken, along with an open bar.
Musical entertainment will be provided by Amanda Quarles and guest Courtney Linam.
“The money we raise with this event goes toward the children and helps make sure that students who want to attend but can’t afford to can,” Parker said. “It also goes toward our general fund that allows us to pay our teacher’s salaries and other things the school may need throughout the year.”
One of the main events of the evening will be the silent auction, with “over 200 quality items” up for grabs, according to a news release from the school. These items include anything from jewelry to household goods to sports memorabilia, original art and religious items.
The other main event includes a drawing for different prizes such as a refrigerator full of steaks and a wagon basket of quality liquor. These prizes were donated by local businesses in town such as Gadsden Music Company, Gadsden Variety and Antiques, B&B Pawn, Harbour Freight and the Gadsden Museum of Art
“There are more business donations coming in each day, and many, many gift certificates from specialty stores. This is not a complete list and we have many quality items in our silent auction,” the school said.
In addition, bingo games will be held for guests to win “additional 10k tickets.” Parker explained that these tickets enter guests into a reverse drawing for the grand prize: $10,000.
“The way it works typically is that the first ticket drawn is the winner of a prize, but in the case of a reverse auction, the last ticket left at the end of the night wins it all,” he said. “We will usually pull tickets until the final ten are left, and then in between each ticket, the people who are left will start to negotiate to see if they want to split the prize money or keep going.”
Parker added that this year’s fundraiser is more important because of the impacts of COVID-19 on the school. He said that missing the event in 2020 was “catastrophic.”
“It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year and not being able to hold it last year caused us to have to turn away students,” he said. “This year, we started off slow with our ticket sales, but things lately have been picking up and we hope that this will be a good year for ticket sales. However, we still have quite a few tickets left in the office, so we’re hoping that this year will be better so we can help the children.”
Tickets for the event are still on sale and can be purchased at the school or after mass at St. James Catholic Church this weekend. For more information or to purchase tickets at the school, call 256-546-0132.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: St. James Catholic School to host 34th $10,000 Give-A-Way
