Westfield Kiwanis Club members George Delisle, left, and Brad Cassin, prepare merchandise for sale in the Kiwanis Club’s 43rd annual TV Auction. The auction will air Sunday, March 4 from noon to 8:00 p.m. and will feature items including vacation trips, Red Sox tickets, and dozens of restaurant gift certificates. The program can be viewed on Comcast Channel 15 in Westfield and Southwick and on-line at www.westfield.ma.edu/kiwanis(Marty Baillargeon photo)
A country club couple’s membership, a vacation trip to Aruba, a Vermont ski package, and a Red Sox vs. Yankees package are just some of the hundreds of items that will be up for grabs in the Westfield Kiwanis Club’s 43rd annual TV Auction March 4.
Kiwanis Club President Adam Wright said that Greater Westfield businesses and nonprofits have contributed merchandise and services valued at more than $52,000 to help make the annual auction a success once again this year.
The annual auction will be aired from the Westfield State University television studios from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m. Sunday, Wright said. The program will be carried live in Westfield and Southwick on Comcast’s community access channel 15, and will be available elsewhere streamed live on the Internet at westfield.ma.edu/Kiwanis.
Wright said this year’s auction features a “Super Block” of high-value items, including Springfield Falcons season tickets, tickets to a Boston Bruins game with seating in the exclusive “Heineken Boardroom”, a seven-day trip to Aruba, a couples membership to Shaker Farms Country Club, and a “Treasure Chest” filled with merchandise and gift cards, including Red Sox tickets, worth more than $1,000.
Wright said the auction’s familiar “big blocks” would offer items of only slightly less value, including Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics and New England Patriots game tickets.
The annual Kiwanis auction began on local AM radio in Westfield in 1969. It moved to a televised format more than 20 years ago, when the Westfield cable community access channel became available. Students and faculty from Westfield State University’s communications department provide technical and studio support.
This year’s auction will be dedicated to the memory of Dr. Edwin Abar, the long-time chairman of the communications department at Westfield State and a Kiwanian for many years until his death last fall. Abar was instrumental in moving the annual auction to television, Wright said, and personally directed many of the early TV auction programs.
Many of the Kiwanis Club’s 79 members and a host of volunteers will work in the studio and answer phones on auction day. Members of the Kiwanis-sponsored Circle K Club from Westfield State University and the Key Clubs from Westfield Vocational and St. Mary High Schools will be among the volunteers.
TV auction bids are recorded in a computer database designed and built for the Kiwanis Club by students from the Westfield State Computer Science department as a class project. The computer system allows recording of bids in real-time, eliminating the potential for errors that existed in the paper forms-based system formerly used by the club.
Guest auctioneers are expected to include Mayor Daniel Knapik, state Sen. Michael Knapik, state Rep. Don Humason and representatives of many of the community service agencies that benefit from the funds raised.
Volunteers will also staff the club’s redemption center at the St. Joseph’s National Catholic Church hall Tuesday, March 6, where winning bidders will pay and pick up their winnings from 5 to 8 p.m. Bidders should be aware that credit cards cannot be accepted. Cash and personal checks can be accepted.
The auction supports many community projects and organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Westfield, which founded in 1969 by the Westfield Kiwanis Club; Westfield’s Little League baseball and softball program, also founded by Westfield Kiwanis; and youth hockey and soccer programs. The Westfield Chapter of the Red Cross, the Westfield Athenaeum Boys and Girls Library, and Kiwanis “Good Citizen” awards to high school students in Westfield and Southwick also benefit from the auction.
Potential bidders can apply in advance for an auction speed bid number by e-mailing [email protected] and including the bidder’s full name, address and telephone number.
