Star City Rotary auction raises $109,000

PRESQUE ISLE – Organizers are calling the 59th annual Presque Isle Rotary Club Radio-TV Auction a rousing success after it raised about $109,000 – almost $20,000 more than what it raised last year – through three separate fundraising projects.

Joe Clukey, senior co-chairman of the event, said Friday that he was tired from working the three-day event, but was pleased with the results.

“The whole auction together was a rousing success,” Clukey said. “Every area met or exceeded our expectations.”

The club raised about $30,000 in merchandise sales from the auction itself, which was broadcast live on a local television and radio station, and on a locally based Web site, between Tuesday and Thursday night.

It also met its goal of raising at least $25,000 for its special project, to help with an expansion effort at the Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery in Caribou.

Finally, the organization received pledges for a record-breaking number of bricks for its Gold Brick program, which sets aside money for the local hospital’s endowment fund. This year, pledges were received for 54 of the $1,000 bricks – 14 more than the goal and 20 more than last year.

The funds will go to several sources, including the Rotary’s scholarship and youth funds, and six area organizations.

The Aroostook Agency on Aging will receive $2,000 for its Medicare Part D outreach program. The ABC Academy, a center for developmentally challenged children, will receive $2,500 for gross motor skills equipment. The Presque Isle Police Department will receive $1,345 for its Gold Coin program, which recognizes good Samaritans.

The Aroostook County Branch of the American Red Cross will receive $2,000 for computer software. The Presque Isle Snowmobile Club will receive $2,500 to go toward its new groomer. And Catholic Charities Maine will receive $2,000 for upgrades to its thrift store building.

Clukey said officials auctioned off about $60,000 worth of merchandise, from prom dresses and heating oil to artwork and airline tickets.

Clukey said he, his co-chair, Alton Hartt, and the Rotary owed a lot of the success of the auction to the volunteers who worked and the generosity of business owners who donated merchandise.

For the Rotary’s special project, Clukey said organizers worked hard on the countywide effort. The money will help pay for a new columbarium wall at the veterans cemetery.

Clukey pointed out that cemetery officials expected about 25 percent of its burials to use the columbarium wall, but that it actually has been closer to 75 percent since it opened three years ago. Part of the reason the Rotary took on the project was that the need was so great – cemetery officials were running out of space.

“This is a more solemn kind of project than in years past,” Clukey said. “They [Rotary members] had the right approach and attitude, and to be able to reach that goal, I was just overwhelmed by it.”

For the Gold Brick project, Rotarians received 36 pledges, two of them at the platinum level, or a 10-year pledge of $1,000 a year. Clukey said the program is in its 49th year and was created with the original goal of raising $1 million for the hospital’s endowment fund. He said the Rotary hit 894 bricks by the end of this year’s auction.

With the auction over, Clukey said there are just a few things left to do.

“All that’s left is for people to pick up their merchandise, mail in their pledges and we’ll get that money distributed as soon as possible,” Clukey said. “And in another two months, we’ll start planning the next one.”