By Sandi Gedeon, Business Manager
On November 19, 2016, guests entered a wonderland to celebrate Bing Nursery School’s 28th annual Harvest Moon auction, “Through the Looking Glass.” The annual fundraising event, held this year at Stanford’s Arrillaga Alumni Center, raised $300,000 for the Bing Scholarship Fund, which provides financial assistance to over 20 percent of the children who attend Bing. As in past years, Helen and Peter Bing were strong supporters, with a generous gift of $50,000.
Guests were greeted by an “Alice in Wonderland” theme, including colorful flowers, playing cards, top hats, “Queen of Hearts” cocktails and beautiful red and white décor. They came dressed in their best “Queen of Hearts” costumes and “Mad Hatter” hats.
Over 600 exciting items were up for bid at the silent auction, and over 100 items were sold through our online auction, where we raised over $14,000. Professional auctioneer Jerry Goldstone took the stage, as well as Bing teachers Todd Erickson and Lars Gustafson, who were this year’s emcees. The live auction raised over $40,000 and included VIP courtside seats to a Warriors game, tickets to the hard-to-get Broadway musical Hamilton and a beautiful clock table created by Bing’s resident carpenter, Gene Aiken, which sold for an incredible $10,000. The ever-popular Fund a Scholarship, a live bidding item with straight cash donations going directly to the Bing Scholarship Fund, raised over $43,000 that evening, with an additional $110,000 raised prior to the auction.
More than 35 events for children, families and adults were also auctioned off, including a Mad Hatter Tea Party, Around the World in 80 Sips and a Bug-Out Party. We appreciate the work and donations of each classroom’s parents, who put together over 50 class baskets with themes including “White Rabbit’s Tea Party” and “Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site.”
The food, catered again this year by Weir & Associates Catering, featured “Mad Hatter” tea sandwiches and cheese and roasted tomato quiche. SusieCakes, Tin Pot Creamery and Peet’s Coffee & Tea donated the dessert and coffee for the evening. Other generous donors for the evening included Hal Morris and Alyssa Rapp (who graciously provided all the wine for drinking at the auction), TaskRabbit, Hengehold Trucks, Balsam Hill, Trader Joe’s, Rick Herns Productions and DJ Golden Arms. Many Bing families and businesses were sponsors or purchased ad space in our auction cata.log. Families included the Actons, the Bischofs and Kevin Lynch and Margaret Carlson Lynch. Businesses included Bay Area Insurance, Brady Avenue, Chris and Kelly Homes, FuelPanda, Kumon Math and Reading Center of East Palo Alto - Ravenswood, Ladera Garden and Gifts, Lindsy Martin Interior Design, Little Bytes Pediatric Dentistry, Littlelane, McKenna Family Dentistry, Patty Brady Interiors, Rose Insurance Group, Service by Medallion and The Village Doctor.
A big thank-you goes out to our auction co-chairs, Adriana Flores-Ragade, Margarita Golod and Meredith Zappert, for their vision, leadership and dedication. We couldn’t have done it without them. We are also extremely grateful to our parent volunteers—over 200 strong—who worked on over 20 committees. A special thank-you to those who donated to the auction and to those who attended. The tremendous dedication of our parents, Bing teachers and staff made the auction what it was—a tremendous success!
Please join us at this year’s auction, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017.