How much would you pay for a jar full of caramels? Does $1,200 seem a bit excessive?
Last Saturday it didn’t. The homemade candies, which came in a hand-blown jar about the size of a small child, sold to Whidbey Island Center for the Arts benefactor Marion Smith at a fund-raising auction for the center. Smith, who has put up a winning bid for the candies at previous WICA auctions, paid the highest price ever for this particular item in six years of bidding.
Deborah Heg, Smith’s daughter, said she believes no price is too high for caramels that have no equal.
“They’re fabulous,” said Heg.
One of dozens of items sold at the auction, the caramels got the bidding off to a solid start among the 117 guests attending the auction at the Whidbey Institute’s Thomas Berry Hall. The largest single fund-raiser of the year for WICA, this edition of the auction did not disappoint attendees or organizers. Stacy Burgua, WICA executive director, said the $76,000 take for the evening surpassed the auction goal by $5,000.
“It’s better than what we were hoping for,” she said.
Other auction items that drew attention included a week’s stay in a London apartment, an air combat package that will put the winning bidder in a real jet fighter for a laser battle in the sky, and a number of pieces of art created and donated by South Whidbey artists.
Higher-profile items were sold off in a live auction during a dinner in the hall. Other items placed in a silent auction were sold earlier in the evening.
Burgua said WICA is budgeted to spend about $350,000 on its theater and arts programs this year. Supported by grants, donations and a small amount of special tax money from the city of Langley, the theater — which is located in Langley — has been bringing small theater productions to South Whidbey audiences since 1994. This year’s auction, the sixth put on by WICA, was the first held at Thomas Berry Hall. Past auctions have been held at the Useless Bay Country Club and inside the WICA theater itself.
Last year’s auction holds the fund-raising record, having brought in $98,000.
