Washburn Rotary supper auction will feature retail and homemade products

2 years ago

WASHBURN, Maine — A spaghetti dinner paired with a community auction will make for an interesting evening for the Washburn community.

On Saturday April 9, the Washburn rotary club will be hosting a supper auction to help raise money for the rotary club, so that the organization can do more to fund local projects. 

Along with bidding on retail items, the auction will also feature homemade items. 

The club will serve a spaghetti dinner at 5 p.m. to go along with the auction, which will be held at Washburn District High School. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. The dinner will be catered by Country Farms Market. Price will be $10 per plate.

The supper-auction used to be an annual event, but the club paused it for the last 10 years due to declining membership, according to longtime rotary club member Larry Harrison.

When Harrison first joined the club 42 years ago, there were approximately 36 members. Today, membership has declined to only seven regular members. Harrison hopes that more people will get involved in the club so that more hands can help with projects around the Washburn area. 

“There used to be more businesses and farms in town so we had a good corps of people,” Harrison said. “Over the years, that has dwindled down and we only have just enough to keep the club going.”

The rotary club sets up scholarships for high school students, works with Boy Scouts to help with projects in the veterans park and works at Mill Pond so that families can enjoy having a picnic in the area. 

The club also put up the town sign at the town office, and the club oversees the Washburn August festival.

Tom Drew, a farmer in Woodland, will be the auctioneer for the evening. Drew has been running auctions for years and brings fun and comical energy to the auctions he runs, according to Harrison.