Going Once, Twice, SOLD!

Every April for many years, Wendell Foster’s Campus (WFC) benefits from a fundraiser called the “Chili Supper & Pie Auction.”  Hosted by the Whitesville Lions Club of Whitesville, Kentucky, this small community comes together to raise money for WFC by making, baking, buying, and donating pies and even cakes.  Little did I know what an experience I was in for!

Held in the Whitesville Senior Citizen’s Center, at least six tables were decorated and filled with donated goodies.  Whitesville locals, Lions Club members and/or their wives, WFC staff, friends and supporters don their aprons to whip up a scrumptiously sinful pie or cake.  I’m not talking the Ferber-method of dumping cake mix into a rectangle pan, bake and then slop some icing on top!  I’m talking fancy schmancy!  One WFC staffer made a carrot cake, only it was shaped and iced like a carrot, complete with its green foliage top.  Another staff member made a cheese custard pie topped with home-made edible mice figures sitting on cheese wedges!  The list goes on . . .  you’d just have to see the photos to believe it! By the time the pie auction started, there were close to ninety desserts up for bid!

In attendance were a few notable community members in political offices was well as WFC board members and staff, several Campus residents and other generous supporters from the community. After bowls of spicy hot chili were consumed, an opening prayer and the pledge of allegiance recited, the auctioneer starts the bidding. Opening bid for the first pie? $100!  I understood pies in the past sold for as much as $800 or more dollars, but never did I dream bids would open at $100.  It was AWESOME!  While young “Vannas” move about the floor showing the dessert on the auction block, the auctioneers ribbed people they know in the crowd in jest, tempting hesitant bidders pulling back from the competition for a good pie or cake.

These desserts were creative works of art.  A cake shaped like a woman’s torso in a bikini was a hit; the donor works in a dermatologist’s office, and ever conscious of skin health, included a bottle of sunscreen and a beach towel with it!  A county judge baked an apple pie complete with a side-order of Pepto-Bismal.  The “Barrel of M&M’s” tempted many a sweet tooth – a cake edged with Twix cookie bars and filled with peanut M&M’s.  Oh, and the “sugar-free” Reese’s Chocolate Cake left many scratching their heads at the contradiction!  And a Godiva Chocolate Cake topped with large, plump chocolate-dipped strawberries.   The Passionist Nuns even get into the action with their ever popular pecan pies, an annual favorite.  So many desserts, so little blogging space!  Bidders as young as five were hankering for their slice of sweetness!

Periodically during the auction, bidding becomes exclusive for WFC peeps who love the thrill of the competition!  Bidding starts at a dollar, and several times, their bids reached close to $100!  With a little financial help from a few anonymously donated twenties, our residents bid to their hearts’ content.  Olive Garden donated Dolcini’s, a variety of mini-dessert cups of pudding and cake, to the Pie Auction, and our Campus residents had their eyes on those.  The Dolicini’s became a “Resident Only” bid item which created quite the bidding war between John, Willie and Rhonda.  The outcome?  You’ll have to check out the video to watch the fun and find out who outbid whom!

With thirty pies still to go late in the evening, bidding started at “twenty-five dolla” to help move the rest of the good stuff as the crowd dwindles.  The bidding becomes seductive and addictive, and I’m pulled into a bidding war for one of my favorite combos, lemon and raspberry pie.  In the end, I go home with three pies. Not too bad, and all for a good cause!

This Pie Auction is a hoot and nothing like I’ve ever experienced in my life.  It’s fun, fun, fun to watch the playfulness between so many who come out to support what Wendell Foster’s Campus does to serve people with developmental disabilities.  But the greatest joy of the evening was watching John, Willie, Butch, Rhonda, and our other WFC peeps compete for their sweet prizes and the fun they had doing it!  I love that the Whitesville Lions Club includes them in the activity, giving them an opportunity to give back to the community that loves and supports them. 

If you want a real heart-warming, yummy in the tummy experience, come out next year to the Whitesville Lions Club Chili Supper & Pie Auction!  You won’t regret it.

In the Next Blog Entry: Guest Blogger Mike Berkson, How to Feel More Comfortable?  LAUGH! - “ I can’t reach or grab anything let alone a Kleenex. . . . . my arms don’t move and my hands don’t grab. There was about a 3 second gap before he realized I would not be able to grab the Kleenex. . . . . . This particular fellow looked at me and said, “Man, am I a jackass!”

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