GORE BAY—This year’s Rotary Club of Gore Bay Fall Harvest auction was definitely the best yet in terms of the number of items up for bid and how much was raised by the club. The Rotary club puts all the funds it raises through the event back into the community.
“Oh, by far, this was the best auction we have had yet,” stated Peter Carter, president of the Rotary Club of the auction held at the Gore Bay community hall on October 11. He pointed out this year’s auction was the club’s 59th annual fall harvest auction.
“This was the sixth year Robbie (White) has been our auctioneer and he went out to businesses, groups and individuals in the community, area, Island and even off-Island in requesting items to be put for bid in the auction,” said Mr. Carter. “Robbie does a tremendous job and I know he is already working on next year’s auction. He started taking bids for the auction at 10 am (October 11) and didn’t stop for a break for four hours. If not for Robbie I’m not sure we would have an auction.”
“We had over 110 bidders for the auction items,” explained Mr. Carter. “All the Rotarians were busy passing out items that had bids to the successful bidders.”
“A big thank you to the community donors; I couldn’t begin to name all of them there are so many,” said Mr. Carter. “So many people graciously support this community effort, year after year.”
“Every nickel we raise from the auction goes back into the community, which is pretty cool,” said Mr. Carter. “And this year we are pretty proud to be sponsoring an international student, Ludovica Costa, from Italy. She has really fit in well with the student community at Manitoulin Secondary School (where she will be attending high school for the first term). She really enjoys the community and activities that she has been involved in.”
Ms. Costa took the reins of auctioneer in taking bids on the first item up for bid in the auction, a flower basket.
Mr. White told The Expositor that about $25,000 was raised through this year’s auction, an increase over last year’s total of about $22,000. All the items did well, in particular the golf packages, plane ride around Manitoulin, a trip to Tobermory, a fishing package and a cruise to Killarney which included a fish and chip dinner.
“We would like to encourage anyone who would like to join our club to come forward,” said Mr. Carter. “We could use more members of the community to become members, help the club and support the community.”
