The Boys & Girls Club of Greeneville & Greene County raised $55,000 at its eighth annual Celebrity Auction Saturday evening at Trinity United Methodist Church. The 2007 auction total was the best the club has ever had, according to state Rep. Eddie Yokley, D-11th, of Greene County, the event Co-Chairman and a Boys & Girls Club board member. “This year’s event topped the $50,000 we raised last year,” he said. Nearly 250 individuals attended the event, which featured many local items plus photos and other items autographed by famous entertainers, athletes, and other notables. The highest-selling item, a John Deere riding lawnmower donated by John Deere Power Products here, sold for $1,800 to John Rogers, a local attorney and long time supporter of the club. Nata Jackson, event Co-chairman, said, “We had over 500 items for bid this year, and we were very pleased with the generous bids received during the auction. The generosity of the attendees is the reason that our event was such a success.” Laura Pendleton, a club board member, added, “Due to the hard work of the club staff and dedicated volunteers that worked very hard over the past few months to put this event together, we were able to offer a wide array of items for our bidders to choose from at the event.”

     Items ranged from photos and scripts to sports equipment, books and CDs. Also, many area restaurants, stores and other businesses donated certificates for various goods and services.

Highest-Selling Items

     In addition to the John Deere lawnmower, the top-selling items were: a Peyton Manning-autographed picture, $575; a luxury box at a 2008 Greeneville Astros game, $525; an EcoQuest International Fresh Air machine, $525; a basketball signed by University of Tennessee Lady Vols Coach Pat Summitt, $500; two seats removed from UT’s recently renovated Thompson-Boling arena and signed by men’s Coach Bruce Pearl and Lady Vols' Coach Summitt, $500; also, an autographed Dale Earnhardt Jr. racing helmet, $450, a gas grill from Grand Rental Station, $400; Walt Disney World day-hopper passes, $375; tickets to “Live with Regis & Kelly,” $365; tickets to the UT-South Carolina football game, $350; a UT basketball signed by the 2006-2007 team, $300; a stay at Rudy’s Peachtree Plaza in the Smokies, $300; a teeth-whitening from the Tri-Cities Center for Cosmetic Dentistry, $300; luxury box tickets to the Food City 250 in Bristol, $300; a Tennessee Vols' golf bag, $250; luxury box tickets for the O’Reilly 200 in Bristol, $250; and 5,000 sports cards from the Skeeter Swift collection, $230. Other items that sold for $200 or more were: bats from New York Yankees players Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter; two Leroy Nieman posters; a Luke Bryan autographed guitar, and a shadow box of old election buttons of Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and others.

     Other items of major interest were: a Best Buy portable DVD player, a Dane Bradshaw UT basketball jersey, a Jason Witten-signed football, various baseball cards from Skeeter Swift, Greeneville Astros season tickets, a George and Barbara Bush picture, a Tony Romo-signed football, a framed movie poster from “Hairspray,” a Law & Order cast picture signed by Fred Thompson and rest of the entire cast, a box of various football cards, a Tusculum College Pioneer football helmet, a Polaroid DVD player from Wal-MartDistribution Center and a movie poster from “Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix.”

Support For Youth

     Carolyn Brown Capps, an Auction Committee member, said she is always amazed at how the Boys & Girls Club is able to get donated items from so many people in so many different fields, including sports, politics, television, movies, music and the outstanding local auction items. She said that it is a great reflection of local support for the youth of Greeneville and Greene County when community members help events such as the Celebrity Auction for the Boys & Girls Club". Scott Bullington, executive director of the local club, thanked the many volunteers that helped make this year’s event a success, including Yokley and Scott Wills, who volunteered as the evening’s auctioneers.

Event’s Sponsors

     Title sponsors for the event were EcoQuest International and Summers-Taylor Inc. Other major sponsors included: C&C Millwright Maintenance Co., Inc., and RPC/ProCote, which sponsored the dinner that was served by the Trinity United Methodist Church volunteer kitchen crew, Forward Air, Takoma Regional Hospital and The Orthopaedic Center of Greeneville, which sponsored the bid tables, EcoQuest Printing, which sponsored printing of the event’s program.

      Event volunteers and club staff members who helped with this year’s event, Bullington said, were: Michael and Nata Jackson, Carolyn Yokley, Mark and Laura Pendleton, Jon Pendleton, Randy and Carolyn Brown Capps, Mike Menz, Steve Mears, Cathy Byrd, Sangela Blue, Courtney Liefert, Bridget Brannan, Leah Bunger, Antoine Braggs, the Rev. Rick Ohsiek, Beth Bryant, Rachael Wilburn, Gary Garner, and Phelan Story. He also expressed thanks to those who helped organize items and helped with the checkout.

2008 Date Set

     Bullington said the club already has made plans to hold the event again next year, with the date set for Saturday, August 16, 2008. Events such as the Celebrity Auction help fund the local Boys & Girls Club activities and staffing. The school-year membership fee at the Boys & Girls Club is $5 per child, per year, and $50 for the regular summer program. The Boys & Girls Club is open to all school-age youngsters who reside in Greene County.  For more information on the Boys & Girls Club, stop by at 740 West Church St., call 787-9322 or 787-9334, or visit the club’s Web site at www.ggcbgc.org.