Puttin' On the Glitz

Saturday night was the 20th anniversary of Overbrook's dinner/auction. I received an invitation a month ago. Seems they were going to honor the past chairs. It was at Sambucco in the Gultch. They rented out the entire restaurant. Things have certainly changed in 20 years.

Now, everything is online. You buy your tickets and register online. They listed and auctioned all the "little" stuff online several weeks prior to the dinner. They had an open bar. Some of us "old timers" were talking about the fact that the Dominican sisters would not allow the ticket price to be over $40.00 in order that everyone could afford to attend. With that price, you got two drink tickets when you arrived. After that, it was a cash bar.

They had all of the class projects available to bid on at the restaurant. In order to bid, you had to download an app for your phone---no pencils or paper anymore. All bidding was done via your phone. Amazing.

The food was delicious. After dinner, they honored all the past chairs. We each got a little gift:

 The little tin is Godiva chocolates that were the party favors as you left.

It's hard to take a good picture of a clear plate---it's etched. That is a nice little remembrance of all my years of volunteering there.

It's so hard to believe that it was 20 years ago when all this began. I only "helped" the first year. The 2nd year, I chaired the auction side of the event. I chaired the entire event year 3, 4 and 6. After that, my friends and I made scrapbooks for the 8th grade graduating class---about 5 or 6 of them. The scrapbook was always one of the 10 live auction items. It averaged about $1500. We felt pretty darn good the year it brought $2800.

My, how things have changed. Although we didn't stay for the entire live auction, I was surprised at how much things go for today. A dinner for 4 at The Catbird Seat---a new and trendy spot here in town---which we haven't been to yet---went for $4000!! OMGosh! The first 4 items brought in nearly $15,000.

I would love to know how much money they raised this year. It was a fun evening. I felt pretty good to be part of something that has become an ongoing tradition. I was always good at raising money.