Rotary Auction arrives Monday

The 57th annual Houlton Rotary Radio and TV Auction will take place Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 19-21.  The event will air from 6-10:30 p.m. each night on WHOU Radio 100.1 FM and on Houlton Cable Channel 13. The auction is held at Watson Hall at the Episcopal Church on Main Street and the public is welcome to attend.
    The auction is the major annual fundraiser for the Houlton Rotary Club. A booklet detailing the auction items for each half hour, special items, phone numbers and store room hours is in today’s issue of the Houlton Pioneer Times. The supplement sponsor for this year is Madigan Home Health Care. The information is also available on the Internet at www.houltonrotary.org. There will be links from the website to view the auction live on the Internet. Details will be provided on the site.
Each year, a major project or projects are funded by the Rotary Auction in addition to their many other charities. The major projects for the 2012 auction are funding for upgrades to the Just For Kids playground, a computerized cataloging system for the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum and the Dominican Water Project. Other projects that will benefit from auction proceeds are Dollars For Scholars, Cary Library, Rotary Youth Exchange, Student Recognition Day and the Salvation Army.
The auction will feature a list of items for bid on each half hour (6-10:30, nine half hours per night).  Items on the half hours generally range up to $110. Bidding on these items is only accepted during their individual half hours with the high bidder being awarded the item at the close of the half hour’s bidding.  Corporate sponsors for each night of this year’s auction are Crawford Homes, Houlton Water Company and Severson, Hand & Nelson.
Nightly special items generally ranging between $110 and $350 are also featured. These items may be bid on throughout a given night. Successful bidders at the close of each night will be awarded these items.  The nightly special items include Laminated Strand Lumber (LSL), wood pellets, a garbage disposal, a Google Nexus, a rifle, cedar storage chests, Kindles, college tuition, chainsaws, a propane grill, a snow sled bib, golf lessons, gravel, a canoe caddy, firewood, a home energy audit, a Belair ladies watch, bales of hay, sunglasses, furnace tune-up, concert tickets, a visit from Santa, a handcrafted basket, an aluminum ramp, a buff and wax, car window tint, an autographed American Idol yearbook, advertising, lifetime Houlton Fair passes, circuit breaker, a 100th anniversary Fenway Park collector’s set, photographs, and artwork, a barrel hamper, Christmas trees with $100 in scratch tickets, gift certificates and a variety of other items.
There are also three-night special items which will be featured throughout the auction and this year range up to $12,300. The three-night specials this year include a  20-foot by 18-foot camp package from Ward Log Homes, an aluminum boat dock, quarry tile, stockade fencing, a 28-inch snow blower, an entertainment center, a 50-inch TV, two truckloads of firewood, vinyl floor tile, a Dell Inspiron laptop, a Dyson vacuum, advertising, a John Deere Gator ride-on toy, an ottoman, a floor mirror, Laminated Strand Lumber (LSL) and 100 gallons of fuel oil. The successful bidders at the close of bidding on Wednesday evening will be awarded these items.
The retail value of the items donated by area businesses and individuals is over $62,000 and add-on items are still coming in.  Add-on items can be contributed by contacting a Rotarian. For this year’s auction, the retail values for all items as listed in the auction booklet have been rounded to the nearest whole dollar.
Bids can be made for any items by calling the Rotary Auction room at 532-4585. Those outside the local area but in state may call toll free at 1-855-895-4077. The Rotary Club is asking bidders to make minimum bids of at least 50 percent of the listed value for the items. Some items may carry a higher minimum, which will be indicated in the supplement. Bids will be taken in whole dollar increments to assist programming and tracking of bids.
Individuals calling in give the Rotarian on the phone the item number they are bidding on and the amount of their bid along with their name and phone number. The bids are then posted on a status board. The status board will be available for viewing online. The bids are subsequently taken to the on-air auctioneers who will read the bids and indicate if they are high, low or even. The auction room is located in Watson Hall and the public is welcome to visit. Bids can be placed from the auction room until three minutes before the close of each half hour. No bids are accepted from the auction room after the three-minute bell has been rung. This year’s phone sponsor is First Wind.
Successful bidders can pick up their items at the auction storeroom sponsored this year by the Katahdin Valley Health Center. The storeroom is also located at Watson Hall in the Episcopal Church on Main Street. The storeroom is open daily during the auction from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and is open the two days following the auction.  Specific hours are listed in the auction booklet.  All items should be picked up by the close of the storeroom on Friday, Nov. 23, at 5 p.m. The storeroom phone number is 532-4620.  When picking up items, individuals are encouraged to give their name to the storeroom clerk and bring a list of their item numbers with the amount of the successful bids to match up with the storeroom records.  Items must be paid for in full at the time of pick up and payment must be by cash or check.
Members of the local Rotary club run all aspects of the auction including serving as on-air auctioneers.      The Rotarian auctioneer schedule is as follows: Monday, 6 p.m., Lori Weston and Ryan Bushey; 6:30 p.m., Joyce Fitzpatrick and Elizabeth Dulin; 7 p.m., Jon McLaughlin and Dana Delano; 7:30 p.m., Leigh Cummings and Scott Dionne; 8 p.m., Tony Bowers and Kim Thompson; 8:30 p.m., Fred Grant and Scott White; 9 p.m., Jim Brown and Max Lynds; 9:30 p.m., Mike Hammer and Andy Mooers; and 10 p.m., Chris Anderson and Amy Hocking.
Tuesday, 6 p.m., Weston and Bushey; 6:30 p.m., Dulin and Paul Adams; 7 p.m., McLaughlin and Delano; 7:30 p.m., Cummings and Grant; 8 p.m., Thompson and Bowers; 8:30 p.m., Forrest Barnes and Torrey Sylvester; 9 p.m., Dionne and White; 9:30 p.m., Mooers and Matt Nightingale; and 10 p.m., Amy Hocking.
Wednesday, 6 p.m., Weston and Bushey; 6:30 p.m., Tammie Mulvey and Mooers; 7 p.m., McLaughlin and Delano; 7:30 p.m., Cummings and Jon Harbison; 8 p.m., Thompson and Bowers; 8:30 p.m., Frank Thompson and Nightingale; 9 p.m., Brown and Karl Woods; 9:30 p.m., Barnes and Sylvester; and 10 p.m., Weston and Bushey. The auctioneer listing is subject to change.
Also part of the annual auction is the Boy and the Boot Endowment Program. Individuals may call in during the auction to pledge a Boy and the Boot statue. The pledge represents a $1,000 contribution to the endowment fund of the Houlton Regional Health Services Foundation, which benefits local health care.  Some businesses also offer payroll deduction programs for the pledges. At the completion of the pledge, the contributor receives a limited edition pewter replica of the Boy with the Leaking Boot Statue.
In addition, $500 worth of No. 2 fuel oil donated by Dead River Company will be given away during the auction. Tickets for the fuel oil are available from any Rotarian and will be available at the auction.  Tickets are $1 each or books of 6 for $5. The fuel oil will be delivered anywhere within the Houlton-Patten Dead River district. The drawing will be held during the final night of the auction.
The Houlton Rotary Club extends its thanks to all of the generous businesses and individuals who contributed items to this year’s auction and encourage the public to call in and enjoy the auction by bidding on the many items available.
Further information on the Rotary Radio & TV Auction is available by contacting auction chair Weston, club president Bushey or any member of the Houlton Rotary Club.