QVSA sets all-time record
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Quillayute Valley Scholarship Auction chairman Jerry Leppell had set a goal for the annual auction this year at $92,000, a thousand dollars over the all-time record. In a community that has seen its share of hardships, losing the last mill not long ago, how in the world was that ever going to happen. Leppell must have known something!
Last Monday, March 13, Leppell was worried. “It was less than a week before the auction and we had about 100 items,” Leppell said, so he called an emergency meeting of the senior class and told them, “This isn’t good.” He fired them up to hit the streets and bring in more donations and they did. On Friday afternoon it was a steady stream of community members and FHS senior class students bringing in all kinds of donated items through the front door of FHS and into the office of Sue Romberg — Romberg at one time exclaiming, “I can’t get any work done!” But she was laughing.
New one-day record set
The auction kicked off on Saturday, March 18, at 9 a.m. at the FHS commons. There was artwork, items made by the inmates at Olympic Corrections Center, sports memorabilia, anything and everything one can imagine that can be is and was donated. Then the food started coming in with pies garnering big bids. Amy Kitchel’s wild blackberry pies were going for $100-$250 each and Judi McClanahan’s pie a month for a year went for $875. McClanahan also donated her late husband Larry’s pool table to the auction, with Donald Grafstrom being the successful bidder. Jennifer Zaccardo donated a quad to the auction that she had won in the Forks Lions Club raffle. It was the highest priced item sold at $6,800 going to Ken Ulin. At the end of the day on Saturday, the QVSA had set a new one-day record of $55,000.
Day two went
into overtime
Things got started Sunday morning at 10 a.m. and the bidding and the buying never slowed. The car donated by Wilder Auto of Port Angeles went up for bid in the afternoon and went for $4,000. Another big item was an autographed football signed by members of the Seahawks team that went for $2,100. At one point during the day a rumor got started that Kenworth had actually donated a truck! The rumor was finally squelched, it was just a toy truck.
While the big items bring in some big bids it is the hundreds of little things like handmade birdhouses and gift certificates and other items donated by local businesses and community members that make up the bulk of items put up for auction. According to QVSA committee member JoMarie Miller, there were so many items that when 8 p.m. came and went, the auction went into overtime finally winding down around 10 p.m. At that time the estimate for the two-day auction was an amazing $113,00.
Monday’s final tally
On Monday morning a somewhat weary but very happy Jerry Leppell shared the news that the final total was actually $128,195 not just reaching the goal he had hoped for but smashing it!
Leppell said, “This class really worked hard, they did an amazing job and this community, what can I say?”
What can be said? It is really quite amazing. In the end, 1,500 items in all went up for auction on Saturday and Sunday. All the auctioneers for the events are local citizens that donate their weekend to the cause.
This was the 53rd year for this fundraising event that provides Forks High School and Quileute Tribal school graduates with the opportunity to apply not once but twice for a scholarship at graduation or anytime in the future. The auction also was aired live over the local radio station 96.7 and a live feed on YouTube. Senior Parents offered concessions with the funds going to the Senior Safe Night activity held graduation night. But to get the real experience, you really had to be there.
It always had been wondered when and if the QVSA could ever hit the $100,000 mark and the 2017 edition has really set the bar high. QVSA 2018?
