The Lafayette Veteran’s Memorial Building proved to be a terrific venue for NORCAL Golden Retriever Rescue’s (NGRR) 2007 Art and Wine Auction.

The location offered enough room for the crowd to mingle, socialize, and roam freely, while providing enough space for three full rows of highly-prized merchandise as well as roomy areas for wine tasting and to sample appetizers.

Several hundred people registered to join in the fun and help us raise money for Golden Retrievers. The NGRR wine goblet, presented to each visitor as a souvenir, proved to be a big hit, as well as very useful for wine tasting. Once the crowd sampled the great wine and tried the tasty food, it was time for the silent auction. The action started slowly but built up to a fevered pitch just before each table closed. The serious bidders kept a keen eye on their targets, as well as the clock, and pounced immediately when other bids came in, trying to slip in the last bid just under the wire.

A very spirited live auction followed the silent auction. The crowd became noisier and more excited as one bidder topped another, with great cheers and fanfare as the winning bidder finally came out on top.

Steve Seagrave, our auctioneer and past NGRR president, did his usual fantastic job at the microphone by highlighting the best values, keeping the crowd informed as to when tables were to close, and getting the highest prices out of the excited crowd at the live auction. In Steve’s other life he is Steve Seaweed on classic rock FM radio station 107.7, The Bone. Thanks to Cathy, his wife, for letting us borrow him for an afternoon!

We especially want to thank the many donors for contributing their arts, crafts, travel packages, wine and other valuable items to the auction. These donors are the key to a successful auction

The winner of the $10,000 raffle was Donna Harbacek of La Grange, IL.

NGRR wants to thank all of the volunteers, and others, who spent so much time before the auction collecting donated items, preparing the flyers, and putting together the bid list. NGRR also wants to thank those who helped during the auction: setting up the auction, preparing the food, collecting the auction bids, pouring wine, helping at the cash register and the registration table, and helping to clean up at the end of the event.

A special thanks to Jeff Wilson, our current president, who ran the auction, and made it so successful.

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