Charity Auction

I was lucky to have a chance to attend a charity auction in State College. It was a biannual fundraising dinner held by Global Connections, a community non-profit organization. Generally the event was divided into two sections – the Silent and Live auctions. At 6 o'clock in the evening, guests were starting to arrive in the Ramada Inn conference room. Each of the guests was given with a personal bid number. They then walked around in the conference room to look at more than fifty auction items that were nicely displayed. The starting price and the minimum increased price were written on a sheet of paper near to a particular item. If a guest interested in an item, instead of her name, she would write down her bid number and the price that she would like to bid for on the sheet of paper. The whole process of silent auction took two hours. It ended at 8 o'clock, and the highest listed bidder won the prize. For Live auction, it took place after the guests had enjoyed their dinners. Auction catalogs were printed and distributed before the event got started. For the auction was conducted orally for people to hear, an eloquent auctioneer was needed. Again, the highest bidder won the prize. There were altogether 10 auction items in this section. All the bidders would pay the money and carried their items back home after the program. To encourage more people doing charity, the U.S. government offers tax reduction on the money that people spend for charity purposes.