Relay For Life of Mercer County will hold a Quarter Auction Fundraiser from 6 to 10 p.m., Sat., Nov. 9, at the Mercer County VFW in Aledo. Doors open at 5 p.m. Auction paddles are $3 each or 2 for $5. “Bid” on donated items by paying the quarter amount associated with each item. The number of quarters for the bid corresponds to the value of the item. A drawing is then held for the winning paddle number to win the item. Back again this year…ALL IN Purple Paddles sold at the door. Limited supply, $50 per paddle, one ALL IN Paddle per person. For more information, contact Jen Thompson at 309-791-2634. www.relayforlife.org/merceril
Mary Flint of Relay for Life of Mercer County joined WRMJ’s Terry James to talk about it.
And welcome back to Focus, joined by my friend Mary Flint. And I cannot believe it’s that time of year again, Mary, the Relay for Life of Mercer County Quarter Auction Fundraiser. The time just goes by so fast.
I mean, everybody knows that who’s listening. So yes, I have people all throughout the year say, now when’s the next quarter auction? And by golly, it’s here, Saturday, November 9. I’ll just coming up real soon. What is a quarter auction? Because it literally deals with quarters, right? It does, indeed.
And of course, all of us, when you hear the word auction, you imagine the auctioneer, hey, give me $25, who can give me 30? You can have Dale Jones over there. Dale Jones. It’s not like that.
It’s that we have, we had a meeting last night, we have about 97 items, I think. People look at those and decide what items that they would like to put their quarters in for. And we say how many quarters it is worth, depending on the value of the item or the basket or the overnight stay or whatever.
We have some awesome, awesome stuff. So I’ll just give an example because people ask all the time, what is a quarter auction? Gotcha. They don’t want to write their name on the quarters or anything.
You do not. Oh, okay. I was trying to figure this out, Mary.
Right. What you do is you’ll come and get some paddles. They’re one for three, two for five.
Those are the regular paddles. And of course, they have numbers on them. And as you purchase the paddles, a ping pong ball of that number goes into the ping pong ball hamper.
Gotcha. So pretend, Terry, you buy number 36. You want one paddle.
Okay. So then a little ping pong ball 36 goes into the pile. Well, then I happen to be the emcee or whatever.
So I say, okay, and everyone gets a list ahead of time. And we have the items on display. This is at the Aledo VFW.
And they’re all around VFW so people can look and see. So let’s say item one comes up and it’s a basket of some sort, which we have the most beautiful, wonderful baskets this year. Local businesses are the best.
Absolutely. Yeah. We appreciate their help.
Just the absolute best. And so you look at it and you think, oh, I’d love to have that. That is so nice.
Well, perhaps it’s a $50 value. Well, those items of $50, you would have to toss in for your number 36 paddle that you can put two quarters. And that’ll be listed, you know, item number one, two quarters.
So then I’ll say, okay, put your quarters in. And if you do that, you can hold your paddle up. Gotcha.
So you got to opt in with the quarters to stay in. To stay in. Gotcha.
Okay. So then I’m up in front and boy, I’m looking out at the VFW and here’s all these paddles. And then whoever’s standing next to me will shuffle them all around and they draw one out and oh, it’s number 36.
So you get that item because you put your quarters in. All right. Well, that sounds like a fun night.
There will be other people who say, well, you know, I think I’ll wait till item number two. So they don’t put their quarters in, thus they don’t put their paddles up. And then if I draw number 36, but your paddle’s not up.
You got to draw again. You do not get it. And so it’s great fun.
This is again, Saturday, November 9th, doors will open at the Aledo VFW at five o’clock, six to probably nine or nine 30 will be the event. And you can come alone and just sit. The whole VFW is just full.
People love this quarter auction. So you can just, you know, hey, sit at a table or a lot of people bring a lot of friends with them. Or I know big families, they bring their whole family with them.
So then they have a table. Beginning at five o’clock, we also have food. You know, you’ve got to have food.
Well, of course, yeah. Calvary Lutheran Church does barbecues, chips and Happy Joe’s pizza for sale. Okay.
And then Swedona Lutheran have, if you’ve had these before, delicious little pies and homemade ice cream. Wow. That sounds very good, Mary.
That is good. Beginning at five. And then it runs throughout the evening.
You can go back and get something whenever. And the VFW will have the bar open right there in the back. It’s upstairs at the VFW.
Okay. And then real quick, the purple paddle, tell me what that is. Okay.
If you would think you’d be tired of throwing your quarters in each time, you can at the beginning by a purple paddle, they’re $50. Now, first you’re like, eh, $50. It’s worth it because you get to put paddle up every item.
Oh, that would be nice. If we have 97 items, your paddle’s up 97 times. Those go quickly.
We only have, I believe we’re going to have about 30 of those for sale. All right. So get there early to get your purple paddle.
Very much so. It is a family friendly event. I’ve had some people ask me about kids.
Definitely. I have kids come. We have kids’ baskets, pet baskets, baked goods, beautiful baskets, overnight stays, a big lottery ticket cake.
Might be a big winner. We just have awesome stuff and I guarantee you’ll have a lot of fun. This is to raise money for Relay for Life, which helps those that are dealing with cancer right here in Mercer County.
Just heard a story today. As I say, every time I’m on with you, if I don’t hear of someone every day, either being diagnosed with cancer or suffering with cancer, it’s almost every day. And I’ve heard two people just today.
And yes, it benefits the American Cancer Society in everything they do. It’s too much of a lengthy list to even mention. My personal favorite is cancer research because how are we ever going to improve treatments and improve chemotherapies or hopefully find a cure except to go through cancer research? Hey, can I get a picture of you in your WRMJ t-shirt? Man, I wish the radio listeners could just see me right now because I am rocking the WRMJ.
I am repping the station today. Mary Flint, Relay for Life of Mercer County, quarter auction fundraiser, November 9th, the VFW in Aledo, 6 to 10 p.m. May and a little early, doors open at five o’clock. Let’s help out cancer research and those that are dealing with cancer, our friends and neighbors.
You won’t regret coming. Mary Flint, thank you so much for your time. This has been Focus.