SEQUIM – Nearly 300 bidders braved a dimly lighted Boys & Girls Club on Saturday night for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula’s largest fundraiser.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean”-themed dinner and auction raised $191,000 this year, said volunteer organizer Stephen Rosales.
That was about $10,000 less than last year, possibly due to the fact that the auction was held a month earlier than usual on the pre-Halloween weekend when parents may have been busy with preparations.
The event featured 353 live and silent auction items.
The highest bid Saturday night was $6,000 for a cruise on a new yacht built by Westport Shipyard.
That auction lot’s bonus item: a 42-inch plasma television for the top bidder to take home. Rosales declined to give the winner’s name.
This year, the “snack attack” session – in which auction attendees are invited to make donations toward the Boys & Girls Clubs’ food fund – added $57,000 in donations, Rosales added.
“We feed 250 kids a day,” he said, at the club buildings at 400 W. Fir St., Sequim, and at 2620 S. Francis St., Port Angeles.