2012 ST. CLARE AUCTION Year of the Dragon Thank You for Supporting St. Clare Table of Contents Evening Program .......................................................page 3 Dinner Menu ...............................................................page 4 Letter from Father Charles .........................................page 6 Letter from Debbi Monahan ............................... pages 7 - 8 Letter from Nancy Melzer ................................. pages 9 - 10 Letter from the Auction Chairs....................... pages 12 - 13 2012 St. Clare Benefit Auction Team .............. pages 14 - 15 Special Acknowledgements ............................. pages 16 - 19 Auction Volunteers ................................................. pages 20 Thank you to our Advertisers ...................................page 21 Master of Ceremonies, Joanie Quinn ......................page 24 Auctioneer, Steve Dorsey .........................................page 25 Auction Rules ................................................... pages 26 - 28 Oral Package Review ....................................... pages 29 - 31 Oral Package Descriptions .............................. pages 32 - 91 Thank You Donors ........................................... pages 92 - 97 Goodbye 8th Grade Families ...................................page 98 page 2 Evening Program 5 to 7 p.m. Silent Auction and Hors d’ oeuvres 7:15 p.m. Dinner Welcome & Introductions Joanie Quinn, Master of Ceremonies Blessing Fr. Charles Wood 7:45 p.m. Introduction/Video Debbi Monahan, Principal Paul Privitera and Kevin Tyree, Auction Co-Chairs 8:05 p.m. Oral Auction Steve Dorsey, Auctioneer 9:45 p.m. Raffle Drawing 10 p.m. Good Night page 3 Dinner Menu Salad & Bread Seasonal Greens with Fennel, Orange Slices, Slivered Almonds, Local Honey Vinaigrette and Cracked Peppercorns Artisan breads & Sweet Cream butter Entreé Selections Miso Glazed Tilapia with Savoy Cabbage Mint Slaw Teriyaki Glazed Chicken with Grilled Pineapple Relish Accompaniments Thank you to those Coconut Rice with Macadamia Nuts Jasmine Rice who lead our Church, Szechuan Green Beans School and Preschool Dessert Assorted Seasonal Petite Desserts page 4 Thank you to those who lead our Church, School and Preschool Letter from our Priest Welcome to our School and Preschool’s biggest fundraiser of the year! This year’s auction theme, The Year of the Dragon, reminds us to celebrate our children and their dragon mascot, as well as everyone who makes a Catholic education at St. Clare School and Preschool possible. Without the concerted support that this auction receives from our parents, the entire parish community, local businesses, and other friends of both schools, the financial cost of a high quality Catholic education would put such an opportunity out of reach for a large portion of our student bodies. “Propitious” is a word that comes up a lot in connection with the recently-begun Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Here’s the entry for “propitious” in the online students’ dictionary affiliated with Merriam-Webster*: 1: giving favorable signs of the success of something to come: PROMISING; 2: likely to produce good results (a propitious undertaking) Through the intercession of St. Clare may we once again enjoy this special time together and make this a most propitious auction! Your brother in Christ, Fr. Charles Wood, Pastor *Especially since this is a school-related publication, I should cite my source! Word Central. 2007. Merriam-Webster. 23 Feb. 2012. www.wordcentral.com page 6 Letter from the Principal Dear Parents, Parishioners, and Friends of St. Clare, It is with immense excitement that I welcome you to the 2012 St. Clare Benefit Auction! Thank you for joining us as we get fired up to celebrate . The Year of the Dragon! Our students at both our school and preschool truly deserve a bright and promising future. This auction is our opportunity to pave the way to making that future the best it can possibly be. Tonight we come together in support of St. Clare School and Preschool as we lift up our most precious gifts—our children—as they make their journey toward all the world has in store for them. Tonight’s paddle bids support two important causes: tuition assistance and technology upgrades. Tuition assistance allows us to ensure that families who hope to provide a St. Clare education for their children have the opportunity to do so. It allows us to keep our students and parents in our St. Clare family, strengthening that sense of community that is truly what we are about. Also, in order to provide our students with the best educational opportunities possible, upgrading and increasing our technology resources is imperative. Providing our teachers with technology tools such as document cameras, a SmartBoard for the art room, and iPads that will interface with each SmartBoard will enhance instruction and enrich our children’s learning experience. Continued on page 8 page 7 Thank you for your generosity in support of these two very necessary causes. Tonight we celebrate not just the here and now, but the future—the future of our children, the future of St. Clare School and Preschool, and the future of our community. We celebrate the efforts of so many who have tirelessly and selflessly made this evening possible in support of our children, and we celebrate the gentle care of our God who continues to shower us with abundant love and so very many blessings. Thank you for your steadfast support. Have a wonderful evening! With much appreciation, Debbi Monahan Letter from the Preschool Director Dear Friends and Family of St Clare Preschool, School and Parish, Thank you for taking the time to come and join us tonight. We hope that everyone enjoys their evening, makes new friends and has a chance to renew old acquaintances. In the last few years the preschool has thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the auction, and this year is no different. Being a part of this annual event has allowed us to participate in a wonderful community experience, while receiving enhancements to our preschool program. This past year we were able to provide additional professional development opportunities for our faculty and staff. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to support our employees in their endeavors and give them the experiences that will increase their personal and professional growth. We were very grateful to increase our funds available for our tuition assistance program; we were able to provide tuition assistance to nine of our preschool families who could not otherwise afford a Catholic preschool. We continue to be pleasantly surprised and extremely appreciative of the generosity of this community. This year we will be sharing the paddle bids with the elementary school again. One of our goals this year will be to provide much needed technology enrichment to our program. To stay up to date in this day and age is imperative. Our program will be able Continued on page 10 page 9 to update our computer systems in our classrooms and allow for better communication between our staff, classrooms and the families we serve. There will be a second paddle bid for tuition assistance. It is our hope that we can continue to support and assist those families who want for their child the experience of our nurturing environment, without having to worry about the financial strain. St Francis of Assisi said “It is in giving that we receive”. Your generosity over the years has been felt and graciously accepted by the preschool and has impacted well deserving families. Thank you!! On behalf of our students, families, teachers and staff, we offer a heartfelt thank you to Colleen O’Mahony and the fourth grade class, many of whom started their St Clare journey in the preschool, for taking on the task of this amazing event that benefits so much to so many. We would also like to thank the long list of volunteers, parents, staff and community members that donate their time and energy to make this evening a success year after year. Most of all, we want to thank all of you, the generosity of everyone in the room, which will make dreams for our community, our children and families come true, and have a lot of fun in the process. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! With sincere gratitude, Nancy Melzer page 10 The dedicated work of the auction team, volunteers and the support of our sponsors, advertisers and donors made this event possible. Thank you everyone for your support. Auction Chairs Paul Privitera & Kevin Tyree Dear St. Clare Family and Friends, Welcome to the 19th annual St. Clare Benefit Auction! We are so glad that you all could join us tonight at the Tiffany Center to share a meal, great company, entertainment, bid on some amazing packages and most importantly supporting our incredible School and Preschool. As the St. Clare Dragons, and with this actually being The Year of the Dragon, our theme was practically served up to us on a platter. We used this theme to get our class and several other willing volunteers “Fired Up”, which with such an amazing community was not hard to do. We cannot even touch the surface in thanking all those who worked so hard to support the auction this year in the scope of this letter. Every team has its core that leads them to success, and our experience has been no different. The core of our team was there when we started organizing last year and have been involved week-in and week-out since the beginning of the school year. We want to say a special thank you to all of them, many of whom may have geared up faster than they might have liked to support our expanded online auction. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! We thank the past auction chairs; Jay Booth, Mike Hagel, Crickett Bittner, Collette Rees, Deb Freepons, Laurie Zupsic, past page 12 procurement chair Liz Johnson and jack of all trades from last year Barbara Soule for their guidance and support. We couldn’t have done it without you! We thank our wives, who allowed us the time to dedicate to the auction, on top of work and coaching in our spare time.