Buy your raffle tickets and get ready to bid:
It’s auction
season for Noe Valley elementary schools.
Alvarado Elementary School will host its 20th
annual auction,
“Lighting the Sea of Knowledge,” on Saturday, March 9, from 6
to 10:30 p.m. at
the Janet Pomeroy Center, 207 Skyline Blvd.
Donations by local merchants, businesses, and
families make for
a good silent auction—this year’s prizes include dinner at
Gary Danko and
getaways in Florida, Sea Ranch, Pacific Grove, and
Disneyland—but the real fun
happens when the live auction starts at 6:30 p.m. Each
classroom and
after-school program creates a work of art that has parents
vying to bid the
highest. From tables to mobiles, the art can fetch hundreds of
dollars amid
raucous bidding.
Anyone, whether attending the auction or not,
can buy raffle
tickets, which cost $10 each, $40 for five, or $70 for 10.
This year’s prizes
are an iMac, an iPad, and a Kindle Fire (or cash).
Last year’s auction raised $170,000, thanks to
generous
merchants, neighbors, and parents. The money pays for an art
instructor, a
science instructor, math and literacy tutoring, and physical
education classes
at the Douglass Street school.
Entry costs $30 until March 4 at midnight, and
$40 at the door.
A ticket buys access to a pre-auction feast and an open bar.
Register online at www.alvaradoschool.net/auction.
Party at the Chronicle
St. Philip School will host its auction, “Born
to Be Wired,”
Saturday, March 23, at the Hub San Francisco, 925 Mission St.
(in the San
Francisco Chronicle building). Your $80 ticket buys
you entrance to a
party with a live band and deejay, full bar and dinner, and
auction deals like
passes to museums, fine arts events, and classes.
Last year, St. Philip’s auction netted $82,000,
which helped pay
for a computer lab upgrade and other programming for the
Diamond Street
school’s 227 students.
