Before the Auction

Before the Auction

            In the days and months leading up to the Art Auction and Benefit for Rescue:Freedom, I put in well over 85 hours of preparation for it.  In so many ways the auction seemed to be a good fit.  We had a goal of raising $5,000 for a very good cause.  I looked forward to raising awareness about sex trafficking.  I hoped to move our guests into action beyond just donating money.  These are all things I cared about.  I also looked forward to seeing how many volunteers I could facilitate into meaningful involvement with Rescue:Freedom.  Moreover, I anticipated being around a lot of art and artists.  I looked forward to adding project management to my resume    I also just wanted to know if I could pull it off.

            I spent a fair amount of time looking for and organizing volunteers.  I eventually found many to prepare appetizers for the event.  Others committed to helping with set up or tear down for the event.  Some helped during the event, such as with admitting guests.  I mostly found help from immediate family members.  A few helped with advertising by putting up posters for the event.  Jeremy, the president of Rescue:Freedom, and Lindsay, a committed Rescue:Freedom volunteer, helped advertise by inviting people on the Rescue:Freedom mailing list.  But, much of the preparation fell on my shoulders.  One, I wanted to make sure things got done.  Two, I wasn’t totally sure how and when to delegate tasks.  We had no precedence for an event like this.  I think prior experience would have helped me know how to delegate.

            To market the event, I tried a few different things.  After all, the event is pointless if nobody shows up.  I sent press releases to various media outlets such as the Queen Anne News and the Seattle Times.  Admittedly, I never did check to see if anything made it into any publication I contacted.  I just had no time!  I spent a day distributing posters and flyers.  I also contacted area churches from Mars Hill to Quest Church to Bethany Presbyterian to a friend’s church in Renton.  Oh, and of course I used Evite and Facebook.  On Facebook, I did something I’d never done before, which was to create a Community Page for the event.  That seemed to help as it seemed to reach people I didn’t know. 

            I also emailed various sex trafficking survivor groups to invite them.  I’m not aware that any showed up.

            I also kept a somewhat lengthy list of things to do before, during, and after the event.  Some of the items on the list were trivial, such as finding out where the brooms were kept so we could clean up afterward.  Others were a bit more important, like figuring out how to accept credit card payment for won bids and who to trust with the sound system when the musicians sang.  I regularly emailed or called Jeremy or Lindsay, staff at the Hub, Candice Russell –one of our musicians, and the volunteers during the weeks leading up to the auction.

            Being that we had not discussed a budget at all, I also keep a somewhat long list of items to purchase or borrow: coffee cups, extension cords, cash box, drink tickets, artistic tape, thumb tacks, a drill, a hammer, a container or two for carrying art, etc.  The list goes on and it’s boring.  I purchased a bit more than I wanted to, but I decided to view it as a tithe. 

            One fun aspect was collecting the art.  I had pictured collecting more fine art, but instead I collected a surprising amount of photography, enhanced photos, and craft items, with some fine art added in.  I had initially asked for framed art, but quickly learned that people are not usually willing to provide that due to how expensive it is.  It is expensive to purchase frames, and framed art is expensive to ship.  I also got a lot of jewelry and craft items donated.  There is no framing needed, and they are easy to transport.  Admittedly, I was nervous about accepting those items due to a member of Rescue:Freedom really wanting to focus on having fine art.  However, I’d already told people I would accept craft items.  Moreover, being that we had no precedence for an auction, I felt we could not be choosy about what we auctioned off.  In the end, I’m so glad we used craft items, as those items received a lot of bids!  In hindsight, I also enjoyed meeting with art donors and the anticipation of being surprised and excited over what they gave.  The most expensive art given to us was Charles Fazzino’s serigraph titled Looting Las Vegas.  It is valued at $2,000 to $2,700.00. 

            Of course, let’s not forget the survivor made items.  Really, their hand made paintings and purses and trinkets were the highlight.  That’s how it should be.  Also, I just really enjoyed making the bidding sheets for all of their items and anticipating how the auction guests would respond to both their high aesthetic qualities and the story behind them. 

            So much of the coordination leading up to this auction was tedious.  Using the software on my laptop for making the event posters and flyers was boring and frustrating.  There was a fair amount of uncertainty.  I just had no precedence for how all of the moving pieces of this project would come together.  I had no idea how much of what quality of artwork I would get.  I really stressed out about enough guests attending or whether or not they would bother to bid on items.  I tried to counteract that by making sure there were enough items to bid on.  I had little idea of what to expect from volunteers, let alone the other people and organizations who participated.  In the days leading up to the auction, I completed tasks a bit by faith.