Last night Mer and I went to CVCA’s annual auction. This is CVCA’s largest fundraiser of the year, and the school goes all out for the event. Every year there is a theme; we’ve had a 50s theme, a Hawaiian theme, a New York theme, a fairy-tale theme, and more. This year’s theme was exciting for me and Mer – it was an Italian theme, including lots of Italian food!

The small army of volunteers transforms the main hallway and the two gyms of CVCA into a fairly elegant banquet hall. The large gym is set up with tables for people to eat at, and silent auction items ring the gym. The smaller gym, which is next to the big gym, is set up with the check-out computers (and the reason I get to go to the auction every year), as well as the food. CVCA has students staff the event as servers, and uses members of the strings group to play music in the small gym.

It is a fun evening, and the food was fantastic this year – I stuffed myself with two very full plates of Italian food (which I love). The actual auction is an interesting thing – there a few high-end items that Mer and I can’t even begin to bid on (there are resort vacations that go for thousands of dollars), but there are many items that are under 100 dollars. Auctions bring out an interesting side to Meredith. Usually, she rarely spends any money, but auctions hit two of her buttons: she likes to support good causes, and she is competitive. So, she usually goes around the room and bids on about a dozen items, knowing that she will not get them all. This year, I bid for the first time as well. We made out all right. We picked up some gift certificates for spa things (hair and facial), restaurant gift certificates, a small home gym (my fault), and a nifty gift for our niece which we now need to get to her somehow. In all, we bought $700 worth of stuff for $350 (thank you, tax refund!). And, it all goes to helping to keep CVCA’s tuition down, so good fun all around!