Our Gala 2008 Auction

Step into Christie's headquarters on Rockefeller Plaza on February 13 for the Heart & Soul reception and Silent Auction. Meet Jim Watkins, CW 11 news anchor, our honoree, and his filmmaker wife, Lauren Theirry. Bid on the photo portrait of New England Patriot, Tom Brady, by renowned sports photographer, Mitchel Gray or on the beautifully displayed quilt handcrafted by Ruth Leeds or one of the many restaurants, inns or services. Enjoy a drink , hors d'oeurvres served as you chat , or waiting on a munificent table for you to choose. Talk to a friend or meet someone new. Then, move upstairs to the main Christies auction room for the Live Auction.

Stephen S. Lash, President of Christie's Americas, is our auctioneer and he is waiting to entertain you with repartee, entice you to bid and provocatively await the next higher bid as the Live Auction gets underway. The mood changes from the lightness and gaiety of the reception to a tension as you discover you are not the only one interested in bidding on Aloha Hawaii or Summer in Switzerland. And, Mr. Lash waits just long enough for you or that fellow across the room to raise the bid.

Then there is break as everyone gets to bid on one of the unique features of the Heart & Souls Auction, the "every-bid-accepted, every-dollar-donated" to important community service programs. Whether you bid $10,000 or $1000 or $100 your bid will go directly to providing necessary services in our NYC community. $47,700 will be raised for the "Friday Soup Kitchen" that feeds nearly 200 people every week of the year. Then it's back to Brazil and Argentina or Autumn in Italy. Next, $38,150 will be raised for the Booker T. Washington Learning Center to provide educational services to children and adults in East Harlem.

Fifteen lots in the Live Auction will raise $191,050. From this total amount, $145,150 will be directly channeled as you have bid. (The H&S Grants Greg and Kerrianne Committee distributes the monies raised through the bidding on the travel packages via various smaller grants.) And, while you were enjoying that drink and chat downstairs at the reception, $31,565 was raised by your Silent Auction bids.

All the expenses of the Auction are raised through the generosity of our benefit committee members, both individual and corporate donors, and journal advertisers. And, now our Auction Co-Chairs Kerianne Flynn and Greg Slamowitz, the Board members and volunteers, excited and exhausted as they may be, go home … and begin to think about next year.

And…if you missed it this year, we hope you will join us next year for a very special celebration. The 20^th Anniversary Auction of the Kerrianne and Jim Heart & Souls Charitable Fund, Inc., is scheduled for February 2009, a gala occasion when we celebrate the work and imagination of all the Auction chairs and co-chairs who have led these events for two decades. Kerianne and Jim Flynn are our Co-Chairs for what promises to be a very special and successful evening.

Our New York City community is richer because of your bidding and your support.

Thank you.

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Last Updated: Thursday, March 27, 2008