Liz Larsen, center, exhorts bidders as Baumholder High School teacher Ronald Lundy, right, prepares to drop the gavel on one of Buccaneer Night’s big fund-raiser packages — dinner for eight at home of Larsen and her husband, Lt. Col. James Larsen, 222nd Base Support Battalion commander at Baumholder, Germany, on Friday. (Terry Boyd/ Stars and Stripes)
BAUMHOLDER, Germany — Buccaneer Night is probably the only auction in the world in which the bidders trump the auctioneer.
When auctioneer Ronald Lundy tried to start the bidding at $50 for a large quilt, audience members demanded he get serious and move on to $200.
When he saw Jutta Morrison’s yellow paddle rise, he looked at her in the balcony of Baumholder’s Rhinelander Club and asked: “Do I hear $200?”
“Three hundred,” Morrison countered, to the gasps of the assembled.
It was the cause, not necessarily the merchandise, that led to the heated bidding. The auction was part of Friday night’s Buccaneer Night, a fund-raiser for Baumholder High School’s senior scholarship fund.
That said, the goodies up for bids did not disappoint.
The quilt was made and donated by five Baumholder High School seniors: Melissa Baker, Ashley Karayannis, Lychelle Ignacio, Shante Price and Liz Abrazado. The $400 it brought goes into a scholarship fund that will be parceled out to at least half, and maybe three-quarters, of Baumholder High’s 30-member senior class of 2005, said Dom Calabria, the school’s principal.
Aside from the annual Army Ball, Buccaneer Night is Baumholder’s premier social event. The fund-raiser began in 1991 as a “barn-raiser,” modeled on the rural American tradition of neighbors coming together to help neighbors, Calabria said. It morphed into Buccaneer Night in 1998, taking its name from the high school mascot.
The event, which includes games, a carnival, food sales and other events, is run entirely by the high school seniors and school staff.
Calabria estimated Friday’s crowd at between 1,700 and 2,000, packing the grounds of the base club. By 8 p.m., teachers volunteering at the grill had cooked 500 spiesbraten and 200 bratwurst.
Inside at the auction, the donations from Family Support Groups and spouse organizations generated spirited bidding.
For example, dinner for eight at the home of 222nd Base Support Battalion Commander Lt. Col. James Larsen brought $680. Huge baskets with everything from bourbon and cigars to Polish pottery generated more frantic bidding. The 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry donated nearly a complete nursery, including a changing table and crib with $150 worth of linens — a hot item at a base with an ongoing baby boom.
Most years, the auction raises more than $20,000, Calabria said. The 2005 total will be known next week, he added.
Liz Larsen, center, exhorts bidders as Baumholder High School teacher Ronald Lundy, right, prepares to drop the gavel on one of Buccaneer Night’s big fund-raiser packages — dinner for eight at home of Larsen and her husband, Lt. Col. James Larsen, 222nd Base Support Battalion commander at Baumholder, Germany, on Friday. (Terry Boyd/ Stars and Stripes)
Tahya Bess, 5, Sabrina Denson, 7, Julisa Navarro, 8, and Melanie Devos, 6, navigate the crowd at Buccaneer Night, which drew about 2,000 people. (Terry Boyd/ Stars and Stripes)
Zachary Pago, 11, fights to stay on the mechanical bull ride, part of the mini-carnival at Buccaneer Night. (Terry Boyd/ Stars and Stripes)
