INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 36)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

The Biggies and More...

Judi and I have attended and volunteered at a number of fundraising auction dinners. These are a lot of fun and, of course, raise money for worthwhile causes. In the next few articles, I am going to tell you about two of the larger and more interesting fundraising dinners we have visited and about some of the funny things that we have seen at other fundraising auctions we have attended!

The Warren Michigan Banquet (Banquet)...

Once everyone had found their seat and the opening ceremonies were completed, an army of servers took the stage! Try imagining over 1000 people being served a four or five course meal, with the meal in perfect condition, crisp salad, hot veggies, prime rib hot and properly cooked, desserts looking perfect and coffee piping hot and delicious. This is how it was and it was completed with precision and in record time! It seemed to me that most everyone was very satisfied with their meal. Meanwhile, while the meal was being served, "commerce" continued to take place! Now it was in the form of raffle winners being announced, the silent auction continuing and the high bidders eventually being announced. The highlight of most fund-raising banquets is the live auction, and the Warren Michigan banquet was no different! The items chosen for the live auction by Sam and his staff were spectacular! I can’t tell you how many framed prints, sculptures, and guns were offered, but there were a LOT! Most had numerous bidders competing against one another, so the price for each was significant and, in some cases, very significant! The last auction item brought the most excitement! It was a brand-new automobile, donated by General Motors. Again, I can’t remember how much the car sold for, but it was substantial. I think both the new owner of the vehicle and RGS were satisfied. As you may know, Americans love their guns, so the last item of business for the banquet was the “gun” table raffle. The idea was, one table would be chosen out of the 100 or more tables and that each member of that table would be awarded a special shotgun. The catch was simple, that you had to be sitting at that table at the time the winning table was chosen! If you weren’t there, then you didn’t win the shotgun! This was a great method of keeping banquet attendees there for the whole evening. Once this raffle was over, so was the banquet.