Christchurch South Rotary Club, Polio Plus ‘Tricky Tray Auction’

Article by PP Melville Opie, Rotary Club of Christchurch South

Tricky Tray Auction is a means of fundraising that involves club members and their families and friends attending a club meeting dinner at which donated gift items from members (each attending member encouraged to donate so) are set out around the meeting room, in the first instance for casual viewing and chatting upon. The key to the auction is in tickets purchased along with the cost of the dinner. In our case this year, 30 attendees paid $30pp, of which $16 covered the cost of the meal and $14 bought 14 $1 tickets, each ticket with the person’s personally designated number, i.e. 14 tickets each with the same number (more tickets with that number were available for bidding if the individual was feeling generous to the fundraising cause and/or particularly wanting to improve the chance of winning a particular item e.g. that colourful bottle of Bailey’s Irish Whisky).

The auction commenced with attendees placing their preferred number of tickets in boxes placed alongside the items. If you particularly wanted that bottle of Bailey’s, then maybe all tickets to increase your chances?. Once everyone has placed their “bids” a draw was held for each item. This was made all the more entertaining by pressing into service a quick-witted club member and an assistant who made the whole experience an absolute delight with their acting, observations and quips as the winning number was drawn for each prize.

But wait! For us, here are some bonuses from the auction:

• A larger attendance than for normal club meetings, with families and friends present.
• A larger, so more spacious and more pleasant venue than for our regular club meetings, to provide the space for display of the auction items.
• An opportunity to have a speaker related to polio. This year we had a physiotherapist many of whose elderly patients were childhood polio sufferers.
• Added variety to our club meetings – both social and structure.
• With the focus on polio some members have been moved to make an additional substantial donation.
• This was the third year we have run this fundraiser raising $416, $1,031 and $ 654 respectively. Then, of course, every dollar raised towards Polio Plus earns 50c from The Rotary Foundation and $2 from the Bill and Belinda Gates foundation, making this fun activity even more worthwhile doing.