SEQUIM — About $200,000 was raised during Saturday night’s 22nd annual Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula dinner and auction.
“It was a very good year,” said Jerry Sinn, clubs board president, adding he was thankful to the 350 people who jammed into the Sequim club’s gym to dine and bid on some 200 auction items that ranged from Lasik eye surgery to vacations in Hawaii.
The $100-per-person auction raised about $30,000 more than the clubs’ $170,000 goal, said Sinn, who added that the turnout and the function’s success was in good part a result of more participation from the Port Angeles club.
Last year, only 290 people attended, Sinn recalled.
“I believe that from what I’ve heard talking to other groups” the greater success was because of “people getting a little bit more energized, a little bit more active” with donations, he said.
He said the auction is considered to be one of the premiere charity events on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“I think that people look forward to the event,” Sinn said. “Its’ a big social event.”
He added, “We have a very giving community here.”
The dinner and auction is the biggest fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs, which operates at about $940,000 a year in expenses, he said.
Two other fund-raisers for the clubs are a golf tournament in May and spring-summer camping for kids.
“It is all geared to fund general operations,” he said. “People can designate for a specific purpose or specific club and we take that.”
In the past three years, the clubs have operated at a net loss, in which revenues do not match expenses, he said, forcing the nonprofit organization to trim its expenses by 27 percent.
Turn-around year
“This year was our turn-around year, and we will,” he said.
“We are going to have a net operating profit of about $2,000. This is the first time in four years.”
Club volunteers dressed up the gym and adjoining rooms with jungle papier-mache creatures of all kinds, colorful lighting, and even decorative jungle vines and palm trees for the festivities.
Port Townsend magician-comedian Joey Pipia was the event’s master of ceremonies and Jake Sanford is auctioneer.
The fundraiser came just days after the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula board announced the hire of Mary Budke as executive director over 45 applicants.
She will head both of the youth facilities in Sequim and Port Angeles,
Budke, most recently acting as clubs director, has been a clubs leader for more than six years and comes from a banking industry background and education.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
