by Ray Campbell
What are you and/or your state or special-interest affiliate or local chapter going to contribute to the first annual ACB auction to be held Wednesday, July 4, during the ACB national convention? While we already have some very enticing items, such as a music box donated by the Piano Boutique, a jewelry-adorned purse, a 3D portrait of Ray Charles sitting at the piano, the ACB time share in Cancun, Mexico, a week in a penthouse suite time share in St. Martin donated by Charlie Hodge, a tin of homemade fudge donated by our own executive director, a vacation package to the country music capital of the world (Nashville, Tenn.), and a $400 gift pack from the Mall of America, we need more and variably priced items! Come on, all of you state and special- interest affiliates and local chapters, surely you can come up with something worth a minimum of $25 to donate to the ACB auction, can't you? How about a bottle or two of California wine? How about reindeer sausage from Alaska? How about some of the world's greatest cheese from Wisconsin? How about some macadamia nuts from Hawaii?
These are just examples. What special something is the signature food or drink item from your state? Does your city have a professional sports team visitors love to go see? Then ask for some tickets to be donated! Think about who you do business with regularly and ask them to donate something to the ACB auction. All donations are tax-deductible to the maximum extent allowed by law for the individual or business making the donation. If you need ACB's 501(c)(3) number to give to potential donors for tax deduction purposes, contact the national office for assistance.
While we ask that you bring the items you plan to donate to the auction with you to the convention, please let us know by June 15, 2007 what you will be bringing so we can publicize a list of items that will be available to convention attendees and build the excitement for this fabulous event. Please contact Carol Edwards by phone or e-mail with a description of the item(s) you are bringing, each item's value, and the name, telephone number and e-mail address, if available, of a contact person we can reach. Carol can be contacted either at (936) 445-3241 or by e-mail at [email protected]. If you have general questions about the auction, please address them to auction committee chairperson Brenda Dillon, (615) 874-1223 or [email protected].
Now, get busy out there, identify those hard-to-find and not-so-hard-to- find large and small items for the ACB auction, and let's make this a fun money-making project for ACB. We've got to keep those auctioneers busy, so let's make sure we have lots of items up for bid!