Silent Auctions Are Never Really Silent

This was the first year that First Glance decided to split its main event, the Open House/Silent Auction, into two events, the Open House and the Silent Auction. The Open House was to be mainly planned and executed by the executive director, and the Silent Auction was my responsibility to plan and host.

Now, I had only ever been to two silent auctions before, and they were really just events with a couple of silent auction tables to the side. As I began planning, I did have the opportunity to go to a silent auction that was only a silent auction. And it got me excited.

Our First Glance administrative assistant stepped up early on, volunteering to help me as I began planning. Together the two of us researched and began to recruit a team. Looking back even now, it's amazing how perfectly our committee and committee leaders came together. Even then, God had His hand on this event.

As we began planning, we developed a few simple goals:
1. Make this an event to remember (set a precedence for the years to follow)
2. Bring in 100 people, mostly those outside the First Glance community
3. Gather 50 items to be auctioned off silently or in a small live auction portion
4. Raise $5,000 for First Glance (a goal which I was encouraged to up to $10,000 a little later in planning)

Starting this, I had no idea just how much work goes into planning an event like this. Each week, I saw successes and challenges that made me realize that this event was going to be a beast of a project. But with the help of my committee, we pressed forward.

As we got closer, I saw God's blessings time and time again. People from all over were donating items and buying tickets. But as I began to evaluate everything, I realized, to reach our updated goal of $10,000, it would take more than me and my committee.

The Silent Auction came. Decorations were incredible (and mostly donated!!). Food was superb. Most of our goals had been reached:

1. The event was spectacular. We knew people would remember this one! (Even got several compliments about it being the best silent auction some of the attendees had ever been a part of!)
2. We sold out of tickets! Granted, some people couldn't come last minute, but we still had over 100 guests there!
3. We had over 100 items. DOUBLE our original goal!!

God was here and once again, showing His favor towards First Glance.

As the night came to a close, it was time to see if we met the last goal. Counted a few times over, the total came to just over $9,000! Incredible. But I still thought God would do more. I knew that our ticket sales had not been taken into consideration, but then again, neither had our costs.

It took a little time to gather receipts and costs and such. Each time the numbers were added, we inched closer and closer to our $10,000 goal. Finally, final numbers were calculated.

$10,044.03!!

And this was subtracting expenses!! The total income was over $12,000! I really and truly do believe that this was only possible because God had His hand on this organization and this event. First Glance is blessed and lucky to have such amazing favor, and I am so exciting to move forward with next year's event!