Seniors holding auction for fundraising, charity

Published 3:06 pm Monday, November 16, 2009

By Daniel Nash

The Courier-Herald

Bonney Lake Senior Center will raffle and auction off art, decorations, tools and handcrafted goods early next month to raise funds for center operations and worthy outside causes.

The event begins at 11 a.m. Dec. 7.

The raffle and auction will be offered as separate portions of the same event. Tickets for the raffle are selling for $1 per ticket or $5 for six tickets.

The items up for distribution have all either been donated by community members and seniors or purchased by the center’s advisory board. Until the date of the auction, they are being kept on display in the dining hall’s glass case.

Some of the items are practical, like tool sets, or decorative, like a sculpture of a reindeer. Other items were handcrafted by seniors specifically for the event. Lonny Johnson contributed several crafts, including a standalone crocheted tree, a wall-hanging tree and two holiday-themed quilts.

Center member Sandi Knaus helped organize the auction and contributed items to be auctioned. Her husband Jake is a woodworker and contributed some hand-carved crafts while she procured and contributed several gift baskets. Gift baskets were themed, like a wine basket, a Seahawks fan basket, coffee mug sets, kitchen and tea items and a bath basket with soaps.

Senior Aide Janis Smith said the contribution by the Knaus’s was “amazing.”

“Sandi is such a wonderful and loving person, but she doesn’t like to take all the credit,” Smith said.

Funds raised will go to the senior center to be spent on programs and trips, but some of the money will also go to local organizations at the advisory board’s discretion. One organization mentioned by Smith was Lions 4 Kids foundation, which provides clothing, personal care products and school supplies to children in need.

The senior center staged a similar raffle and auction in the summer. Proceeds from that event exceeded $1,200, Smith said.

For more information, call the Bonney Lake Senior Center at 253-863-7658.