The Family Place, which was "built on a dream", is able to continue helping families after a successful fundraiser on Thursday evening raised the most ever in support of the facility.
The Family Place, which was "built on a dream", is able to continue helping families after a successful fundraiser on Thursday evening raised the most ever in support of the facility.
The Festival of Trees, which was on display for two weeks in Barber Motors' showroom, wrapped up with the live and silent auctions, bringing in a total of $60,000, with more donations still coming in from people who were unable to attend the gala evening.
The live auction portion of the night, where 21 Christmas trees were auctioned off by Winston Bailey, raised $45,000, and the silent auction and raffles brought in another $15,000.
"I'm still very much in shock," said Dawn Gutzke, executive director of the Family Place, said on Friday morning, as she and her fellow staff busily packed up everything to move out of the showroom.
"What happened here is a dream came true; it's very overwhelming. We never thought it would turn out like this," she added. "The support from the community of Weyburn is just unbelievable, that we have a community-funded facility like this."
At the end of the live auction, with the very last tree going for $4,000, Gutzke told the crowd, "What happened right here is what makes us go on."
Contributing to the evening's success was the high bidding for some of the trees, with two trees each fetching $4,000, the highest bids on the night. The Prairie Animal Health Centre tree was the first one, with Southern Well Servicing buying it, and the second was the last tree auctioned on the night, the Remax tree, bought by MNP and donated back to the Family Place.
This followed a familiar theme on the night, as at least five trees were donated back to the Family Place, some to be given to a family.
Also donated back was a painting done by the Mini-Go students, which fetched a price of $1,800 from Site Energy, and a huge teddy bear, bought for $3,000 by Remax. Gutzke shared with the audience that a mom from a Family Place family had wanted to get the bear for her son as he adored it, and as the bear was donated back to the Family Place, it was in turn given to this family.
The people's choice favourite tree was one called "Iridescence", donated by Com-Tech and Industrial Electric, and purchased by Gloria Scaddan for $3,700.
The favourite silent auction item was "Tea for Two", donated by the Jack and Debi Giroux.
One of the raffle items was a loonie tree with over $400 worth of loonies on it, sold as a 50/50; the winner, Gary Hoium, donated it back to the Family Place, giving them the full amount raised.
In two other raffles, the winner of the iPod draw was Janet Schiller, and the closest candy cane guess was by Tanya Kwochka; she guessed 1,862 canes, and the actual number was 1,820.
Prior to the auction beginning, Gutzke shared her own family's story of becoming involved with the Family Place, when their son Noah grew up with a developmental delay, as by age three he was still not talking.
The Gutzkes met with Linda Rudachyk, the founder and prior executive director of the Family Place, and Noah was placed into the preschool program, Mini-Go, where with one-on-one instruction and attention, he began to communicate, to the point he was able to join his kindergarten class for the beginning of school.
"Not every family has the financial support for their children's needs. With your support, we don't have to turn any families away. Not every child has developmental needs; some need food, some need individual attention, and others just need nurturing love," said Gutzke, noting they have 80 children enrolled in the Tiny-Go and Mini-Go programs currently.
"The Family Place was built on a dream, a dream that became a reality for a very special lady, Linda Rudachyk. It's very special for me to help keep this alive," said Gutzke. " I could not do this without you guys."
