Higher Hopes Benefit Auction

Saturday December 8th was the benefit sale for Higher Hopes. Through Carla, I have come to know Tom and Peggy Roahrig pretty well. My sponsor in the Auction business, Jim Nelson has handled this auction since its inception 11 years ago. I have attended it for the last 3 years. I hesitated to blog about parts of it, most specifically the part about me being new to it, but after doing that auction, my very first as a licensed apprentice auctioneer, and after hearing encouragement from Jim, Carla, the other auctioneers and some bidders, I felt that I could be comfortable writing about it. In Auction terms, this was a pretty big event. We auctioned for 6 hours or so between the 4 of us. I want to thank Wayne Yoder for his words of encouragement, as he doesn't know me so his words can't be sloughed off as someone that loves me. We have all heard words of encouragement from those that love us followed by Bless his heart..... and wonder what the truth really is. The truth is, that auctioning isn't as easy as it seems. Keeping the interest of a crowd, keeping the bids clear, seeing all the bidders, even from behind.... straight is difficult, plus I am still learning the chant, that musical talk that auctioneers use. I got through my part and I pray that Tom and Peggy were happy with my performance. Through my meanderings I have discovered that a small percentage of auctioneers will actually sing a tune while selling, and I had thrown some together using Christmas Carols. Thanks to Wayne, when I told him about it, he insisted that I try it out on the crowd. Now, I have been in front of people since the 2nd grade and normally I don't have a shy bone in my body. But..... it is different when you are responsible, at least in part, for raising money for a group, where this fundraiser is the largest of the year. I was nervous, but I think everyone had a good time. All and all I think it went very well, and I promise to do my best