A week’s free use of apartments in Paris and Panama City are among the items on the auction block Sunday at the Fort Lewis College Foundation’s 17th annual auction to round up money for student scholarships and faculty grants.
And those not into foreign travel can bid on a Charlie Daniels fiddle, multiple pieces of art, a cushy ride to Silverton by train or a chance to look at celestial bodies under the guidance of a knowledgeable stargazer.
“We’ve had 60 items listed or pictured online for silent bidding and five high-end items for a live auction the evening of the dinner,” Margie Deane Gray, director of the FLC Foundation, said Friday.
The online display was set to close Friday at midnight. But the items will be at the TLC for FLC spring benefit dinner and auction Sunday, at which time participants can take up the bidding again, Gray said.
The auction takes in $40,000 to $50,000 annually, Gray said. Proceeds are split 75 percent for scholarships and 25 percent for faculty grants.
If anyone wants to join 200 diners in the ballroom at the FLC Student Union starting at 5 p.m., there could be a few slots available, she said. She can answer last-minute queries at 799-0920.
The fiddle of country music legend Charlie Daniels, who splits his time between Appalachia and the San Juan Mountains, where he has a home in Mayday west of Durango, is a natural to bring enthusiastic bidding, she said.
Also sure to command top dollar is the use of the Paris apartment of Jean-Pierre and Rebecca Bleger or the apartment of Sylvia and Ralph Kehle in Panama City. Both apartments are available for a week.
The Blegers own the Jean-Pierre Bakery in downtown Durando; the Kehles are Durango retirees from elsewhere.
Closer to home, Al Harper and wife, Carol, are offering the use of their parlor car on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad for a trip to Silverton. The parlor car excursion, open to 10 people, is exclusive and not part of a regular Durango-to-Silverton run for tourists.
Charlie Hakes, a physics professor at FLC, will host a star-gazing party for six at the campus observatory at the Old Fort in Hesperus. It probably will be in the fall, Gray said.
The remainder of the auction items consists of many high-quality art pieces – paintings, photographs and jewelry. Professional auctioneers Calvin and Pat Story will oversee the bidding.
Sodexo, the food-services company that supplies the college, is donating a large portion of the cost of the six-course repast auction-goers will have Sunday, Gray said.
daier@durangoherald.com
