In a community that thrives on coming together to support local causes, COVID-19 has presented some unique challenges to such efforts. Still, organizers persist in meeting local needs, including …
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In a community that thrives on coming together to support local causes, COVID-19 has presented some unique challenges to such efforts. Still, organizers persist in meeting local needs, including support for local high school graduates.
Among Wright City’s resourceful community members is Jackie Niermann, who has long been the coordinator of the Wright City R-II Blue and Gold auction. The event had been moving along smoothly as a staple in the district for two decades until a sudden disruption last spring.
“Two weeks before we were scheduled to have our event in March is when everything started shutting down from COVID,” said Niermann. “We had everything in place and had to scratch our plans.”
Organizers pressed on, quickly transitioning to an online auction to ensure the organization still had funds to go toward student scholarships. A year later, they are wrapping up a second online auction, hopeful that 2022 will bring a return to the traditional event.
“Originally, we set our goal pretty low, because it was a tough year for our donors,” said Niermann.
It is expected the online efforts will reach the $20,000 goal — considerably lower than the $60,000-70,000 raised in previous years by the in-person auction, that often draws around 140 people.
“Our committee decided to continue our commitment to handing out scholarships,” said Niermann. “We feel it’s really important, since we’re one of only a few that offers renewable scholarships each year.”
This year’s online auction items raised around $4,000, with an additional $8,000 raised through raffles for a variety of items, including a pair of fire pits. The remainder of the approximately $8,000 in funds came in through direct donations from businesses and community members.
“We sent out a large mailing where we advertised the raffles,” said Niermann. “We still have donations coming in from some people who may have gotten their letters late or missed the auction.”
This year’s top yielding auction item was the naming rights for the high school football field, which sold to Ramiz Hakim for $1,000. Meanwhile, naming rights for the high school gymnasium raised $750.
“We started out just having the naming rights, because we didn’t want to ask too much of our usual donors, but people were still kind enough to donate some additional items,” said Niermann.
The Wright City High School Scholarship Fund typically awards around $45,000 annually in scholarships, dispersed among 10 recipients. Last year the group scaled back its contributions to $17,000 in an effort to keep the renewal process open.
The committee will host another auction for front row seats at graduation beginning on April 22 and running for two to three days.
