Pink Pumpkin Auction

Pink Pumpkin Auction brings in the crowd and the cash for the American Cancer Society

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[October 13, 2022]   After months of planning and anticipation, on the evening of Thursday, October 6th, the work of the Friends and Family Relay Team came together in an awesome event held at Collision Concepts in Lincoln. The Pink Pumpkin Auction is a fundraiser event held in conjunction with the American Cancer Society Relay for Life program. The money taken in at the auction will go entirely to the ACS and earmarked for breast cancer awareness, research and assistance to warriors.

Although it is a lot of work, and takes up a lot of time, the team members agreed that when the night was over and more than $18,000 was raised, it was an effort well worth making.

Getting ready for the day took a lot of volunteers starting with Erv and Cindy Guyett and their staff at Collision Concepts. The back shop area was closed at noon, all the work in progress was moved out of the building. The floors were cleaned, measure were taken to keep guests within a safe area during the event, and then it was time to set it all up.

Silent Auction and Live Auction items have been collecting in two office areas at Collision, ready to be taken out to the tables that are on loan from the Logan County Fairgrounds. The tables along with chairs were brought to Collision Concepts by employees of Illinois American Water, a service they offered as a donation to the event. After the event, the employees returned on Friday morning, loaded everything up and took it back to the fairgrounds.
 


After the tables were set up and decorated, volunteers, most of whom were staff of Collision Concepts along with their family members, Hargis, Smith, Janice Funk and John and Becky Logan began organizing the auction areas.

The employees of Collision loaded auction items onto carts and wheeled them out to the shop area. In a matter of minutes nearly 150 items were delivered to the tables. Hargis was in charge of organizing the silent auction items and Smith was responsible for the live auction items. They both had helpers including team members Janice Funk, Richard Smith and others who just want to pitch in a do what they can to make it a great night.

In addition to the auction items, there were raffles that are set up on tables, surprise bags filled with items donated by local retailers, luminaria sales for remembering those who have battled cancer of any type and gone to the ultimate victory of life ever after without cancer and pain.

In the front entrance, Nuthatch Hill BBQ put out BBQ Sundaes featuring their delicious pulled pork. Cindy Guyett was in charge of the “front of the house” and took care of the set up and also provided food and drink for guests.



Bill Post and Tonita Reifsteck have been involved with selling luminaria for Relay for Life many years. They both spent the evening at the auction and sold a large number of luminaria before the event began. Those luminaria were lit and lined the floor along the live auction tables.



Team member Nancy Cunningham and her husband Mike manned the raffle table, and sold tickets for a pink pedal tractor donated by Central Illinois Ag with a custom paint job by Darin Schempp of Atlanta as well as last minute tickets for the Ducati battery-powered kid’s motorcycle donated by Rent One in Lincoln. The drawing for the motorcycle took place just prior to the live auction event.



Team Member Janice Funk helped throughout the afternoon and when the doors were ready to open she took a seat behind the table where surprise bags were being sold. The bags consisted of a wide variety of items, all donated by local retailers.



When guests began to arrive, the first stopped at the food tables, filling up on tasty items from Nuthatch and the Guyetts.



Then it was out to the auction area where the front set of tables was filled with items for the live auction.



In the back portion of the shop area, the silent auction tables provided more than 100 items for shoppers, and many made their way to that area and started placing their bids.



To get their live auction paddles, they visited volunteers Devyn Fry of Lincoln Daily News and Leslie Bridge of The First National Bank in Tremont.

The silent auction ended at 6:15 p.m. and the next portion of the evening was dedicated to introductions and expression of gratitude by the committee members. Among those introduced were John and Becky Logan who are the brother and sister-in-law of the late Roy Logan. They were introduced by Cindy Guyett who spoke briefly in remembrance of Roy. John Logan helped with the auction, and Becky volunteers to be one of the cashiers for the night.

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Becky and John Logan, Cindy Guyett, Jennifer Luckhart, Nila Smith, Karen Hargis and Little Miss Luci.

Hargis introduced Maske and shared the gratitude of the committee for his continued commitment to the auction. Smith introduced Little Miss Logan County Luci Bobell, who would be the “Vanna” for the evening.

After a moment of silence for the luminaria names and all others who have battled and moved on as well as those that are still at war with cancer, the floor was turned over to Maske and his helpers.



The night was fun for everyone. Maske did an excellent job of pulling out the bids, and brought in as many dollars as possible for the ACS. His helper John Logan was busy keeping track of all that was going on, and Little Miss Luci, sometimes with help from her big brother Wesley do a great job of showing off the items being sold.


Lisa Ramlow

At the end of the night, guests were assisted with checkout by Fry, Bridge, Becky Logan and Lisa Ramlow. They were then encouraged to head to the next room, where photographer Mitch Douglas awaited them. Some were a bit shy and dodged out a side door with no picture taken. Even so, Douglas ended up with 30 great photos of buyers. Props had been provided by Cindy Guyett and some took advantage of the fun little accessories for their photo op.



During the live auction there were a large number of big ticket items this year. And there were items that we may or may not ever see in the auction again. Three such items were the little yellow fellows made by Carol Charron and donated by Charron Auto Repair. The Charrons are retiring and are ready to start a new chapter in their lives. The tanks the little yellow fellows are made of come from the auto repair. So, that particular medium may not be available in the future for Carol to turn into sweet little works of art. The Friends and Family Relay Team thanks them for contributing to the auction.
 


Oddly enough, it would not be the last time that these little guys show up in the community. All three were purchased by Tim Canady who said that he would be placing them in the long line of gifts for the drawing to be held on Saturday at the Modern Brake ribbon cutting and open house. Canady is the son-in-law of Kevin Ray and the business would officially be turned over to Tim and wife Libby during the Saturday celebration.

In all, it was a great night. The auctions brought in more than $18,000 for the ACS. Because there are so many people who are willing to provide what it needed for the auction free of charge, the full amount will go to the American Cancer Society for the battle against breast cancer.

It is a worthy battle and a worthy cause. In 2022 more than $287,000 women in America will be diagnosed with some stage and form of breast cancer. More than 46,000 women will leave this earth for a better place with no cancer and no pain.

The number of deaths from breast cancer is dropping about one percent per year. The reason for this drop is increased awareness, early detection, and the ongoing research funded by the ACS.

The American Cancer Society records its annual financial records on its website for all to see. Their fiscal year begins in October, so what is on their website currently is for the year that ended in September 2021.

The 2021 report shows the following:

  • $63 million spent on Awareness and Education

  • $1.616 million spent in direct assistance to cancer warriors

  • $27.371 million spent in free lodging for patients who have to travel for their treatments

  • $198.673 million spent on research grants, seeking more effective treatments and medications and ultimately trying to find cures for cancers. (There are currently six such grants awarded to Illinois hospitals and laboratories.)

 

For more information about the ACS, visit the website: https://www.cancer.org/.



The Friends and Family Relay Team and the Pink Pumpkin Fundraiser Auction Committee wish to thank all those who gave their time and talents to the auction.

[Nila Smith with photos by Mitch Douglas & Karen Hargis]

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