Heide said the idea for an auction came when a group from the committee, including Boissevain-Morton Head of Council Judy Swanson, were sitting in her office. They were wondering how to get something together.
“We were kind of dead in the water with fundraising. The whole fall, the way it was with the harvest, we were really struggling with what we could do for the community, what the community could do to have some fun. We needed to raise money to get our goal satisfied. We sat in her office and threw around a lot of ideas.”
They thought of holding a social, but felt that was not family friendly. Then an auction came up, an old-time auction, to sell pie and make an evening of it. This had worked for other community projects like the theatre and library. They went out and found some items to sell and got some baking, and everything fell together.
The response from people and the business community was staggering. Heide tallied up the number of items and contributors before the event, and it came to over 120 with more coming in. The dollar amount of it was huge. There was a large range of items – hockey tickets, canola seed, wet vacs, holidays, tire packages, the list goes on.
“Most things sold very well, we were so happy with the outcomes. It was awesome, unfathomable, really.”
The $48,000 is going toward an assisted living facility. The idea of the 35-suite structure is so seniors can live within their own apartments, but have items like meals and laundry taken care of. The facility is to be located near Boissevain Health Centre and plans are for construction to start in the spring of 2020.
Heide said they did get fortunate with the weather for the auction. The forecast was calling for freezing rain, but it held off long enough to get a good crowd for their event. He added it shows how much support there was for the project.
“Never have really had a negative comment,” he said. “No people talking against it.”
Heide also gave a great deal of credit to Wright’s Auction Service for the result.
“You know how they are. They make it all work. It was three hours long, with 110 items auctioned live. They were incredible.”
Prior to the auction, they were around $200,000 short of their $2 million fundraising goal, which they need to reach by the end of December in order to kick their mortgage into gear for the rest of the project. The money from the bids will help that, as well as a couple of other developments. There is an anonymous donor who will match donations up to $50,000 until the end of the year. Judy Swanson said the auction funds will not count toward that, but monetary gifts will. As well, if you need a pole shed and book with Goodon’s by the end of the year, they will donate 30% of the cost to the assisted living facility. Swanson said everything is looking good for the project.
“We were really pleased with the auction,” she said. “It went well above our expectations. With the anonymous donor and the 30% from the pole sheds, we could be in really good shape.”
Heide said they are getting the building design plans done and will move from there. He added they still have to go out there and continue to raise money to get to the place they need to be. Progress is being made on a very important project.
“It will be a wonderful asset to our community and to our region,” Heide explained. “There’s nothing really like this in the area. It will keep our families together over time.”
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff