Yesterday was silent auction day, as in the day we label and tag all the items for the silent auction. The woman on the immediate right is Barbara Patchin who used to be helped by our stalwart Leslie Mills who has wisely moved on to more free spirit activity at the art table
Barbara was the second in command at the Parks and Recreation department, and for years hers was the only friendly face I saw in the city when I went to get our event permit. She was so friendly that when she retired I asked boldly if she might want to help us. Now by virtue of a dramatic character flaw she has volunteered with her husband Richard (formerly on the PRMCC who permitted us every year) to handling the entire thing them selves. The pair are the very rare combionation of breathtakingly organized and unexpectedly mellow. They have 100 clip boards which they use elegantly on the day. We are so blessed to have their help I am still pinching myself,
So yesterday we went through all the goodies and today Jon moves them all from our house to their house where they will take them over. As always they were especially fond of the puppets which once again were an enormously generous donation by Folkmanis. Since they have grandchildren I’m imagining their home is full of dramatic reproductions for father[‘s day.
One final thanks is for our long time friend Sheri Hartstein. She is the buddy of Sherry Guzzi at the Sierra Wildlife Coalition who photographed the Sierra Beavers for years and after Ted’s death helped with their booth at the festival. This year she can’t be joining us because she was injured in a fall on the trail and is now undergoing rehab so similar to mine that we swap war stories. Since she wasn’t going to be able to be there on the day this year and still wanted to help out she stepped in to write all 71 bid sheets for the auction items – an amusingly tedius task. Think J Peterman catalogue without the photos. So thank you Sheri! Thank you Barbara and thank you Richard! Beavers get by witha little help from their friends.
