2021-05-06

LRHS Scholarship auction set to go

by KEVIN MCBAIN

  • <p>CONTRIBUTED PHOTO</p><p>Grace Smith and Raya Stewart show off one of the auction items up for grabs through the LRHS Scholarship Auction. The washer toss game is one of four available made by the students in the LRHS Tech Ed. class.</p>

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The 23rd annual Liverpool Regional High School (LRHS) Auction is going ahead this year with plenty of items to choose from to fill a buyer's lists of wants and needs.

The event raises money to support LRHS graduating students who are advancing their education. Recipients are chosen by a selection committee which allocates the funds to students according to a set of criteria including marks and school and community participation.

Each year, about $20,000 or more is made.

In 2021, 75 students are eligible to receive their diploma. Parents of graduates Deborah Raddall, Melanie Inglis and Charmaine Stevens, are organizing this year's event.

On April 13, Raddall started an online platform upon which the auction will be held, a Facebook group page called LRHS 2021 Scholarship Foundation. She encouraged people to invite others to like the page. Within three days, more than 700 people had joined the group. According to Raddall, the community regularly supports the auction in a big way.

"It is really a community thing. People are tuned in to seeing the value of having this particular community scholarship available to the graduates on every given year," said Raddall.

Typically, the auction is led by one of the school staff members at the school's gymnasium. It features both a live and silent auction along with various ticket sales. However, because of the pandemic this year, the school cannot be involved in this sort of fundraising.

"Usually, it's a big partnership with the school, parents and there's a teacher that organizes it. We as parents come in and help out, but we have a main leader with the school," said Raddall. "It came to our attention that if the scholarship auction was going to happen it would have to be a community or parent-led operation."

The main auction week will take place May 14 to 21. However, organizers already have started posting items on the Facebook page and will continue to do so leading up to the main auction week.

Raddall suggests there will be a wide variety of items up for grabs, such as lobster, washer toss games, income tax preparation, paintings, tools and personal care baskets.

A 50/50 draw will also be held throughout the event.

Anyone can bid on the items by putting a dollar figure below the items.

Donations over $20 for individuals, and for business donations worth more than $100, are eligible to receive a tax receipt.

"We're so pumped up to do this. It's exciting to see how excited people are to support the grads," said Raddall.

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