Making Scholarships Out of a Great Party
Every year, for the past 31 years, Grace Church School has held the Scholarship Benefit Auction, to which all parents from grades K-12 are invited. But this auction is different from a typical school auction. All of the money GCS raises from the auction items sold goes toward the scholarship fund for our school. As stated by the Director of Development, Joyce Kuh, “From the time we started, the goal was to add to the scholarship endowment, and it has become the single largest contributor to financial aid in the school.” After this year’s auction, we reached a record gross figure of roughly $840,000. In a sense, all of the auctions are deemed successful because everything raised is more than the scholarship fund had prior to the auction.
Every year the auction is chaired by parent volunteers and those chairs chose a particular theme. Auction Chair of 2011, Dana Foote, chose the theme “Surf’s Up” covering the space with tons of summer fun, waves, palm trees and more. When Amber Ward and Conni Walsh chaired the auction they dressed up in huge feather headdresses, which Ms. Ward wishes she could just wear to school because it would make every day that much better! For Camilla Campbell, Director of Admissions, her favorite auction was the the first auction of her child’s first year at Grace where she was welcomed by a community who wanted to meet each other and socialize; also the party was very fun.
Past year’s themes have been Grace Circus, Road Trip, Carnival, The 80’s Remix, Flying to the Moon, Going to a Go-Go and more. Mr. Davison is always seen sporting a unique outfit to align with the particular theme.
The chair is not alone in the setup. There are usually roughly 150 parents that volunteer their time and energy as well, which create a low stress environment before and during the auction. Since our auction is held at the lower school campus, rather than at an outside event space, parent volunteers are therefore able to work hard to transform the school into a space that can bring the theme to life.
The auction has two main components: a silent auction and a live auction. For the silent auction, there are categories of art, books, entertainment, restaurants, dream dates, sports fitness, and trip/adventures. The dream dates are unique because teachers at the JK-8 campus offer their time to go out with a lower school child for a picnic, pizza, or another fun activity. After the silent auction closes, the live auction occurs in the school gym and has roughly 10 big ticket items. The live auction has a site that provides a preview to the most interesting items.
Artists have been big contributors to the auction both this year and in years past. This year one of the parent artists, Cai Guo-Qjang, donated an impressive piece. Mr. Guo-Qjang has previously done the fireworks for the Beijing Olympics and for this auction he donated a sculpture that represented a big project called Sky Ladder. In 2011, when Mrs. Foote chaired the auction, a parent, David Zwirner, donated a lot of art for both the silent and live auction. Mrs. Foote mentioned that outside art dealers came to the auction to see the pieces donated by Mr. Zwirner. Mr. Zwirner continues to be a gracious supporter of the event.
The best part of the auction is not the necessary the items or the money raised, but that the whole school comes together for a wonderful night of fun. It is not just for a great cause; parents love attending. This year roughly 650 guests attended. During the “Surf’s Up” themed auction in 2011 there was an intense torrential downpour, but everyone came. Tickets range from as much as $2,500 to $25 to ensure that ticket price does not prohibit anyone from attending. The goal is to have everyone afford coming to this special event that is a great form of entertainment and benefits members of our community. Past Auction Chair Amber Ward said it perfectly: “While Grace creates this night for our community, it is only able to do so because of our community.” Our community cares about one another and that is what makes the auction so special. Aside from the brilliant themes, or outfits, or auction items, the true glory of the auction is the expression of who we are as a community.