Snowflake Auction to raise funds in support of community

THE WOOLWICH COMMUNITY LIONS CLUB

are already busy preparing to bring Santa Claus to town later this month, but that isn’t keeping them from launching a fundraiser to help support the community.

Dubbed the Snowflake Auction, the virtual event is a first of its kind for the club, with president Lynn McLaughlin saying the inspiration came from seeing the Floradale Friends of Dog Guides Lions Branch Club run their own successful online auction.

“We have a sister club, Floradale Friends of Dog Guides, and they did an auction [and] it was quite successful. We have a lot of obligations to the community and we thought, we’ll give it a try,

The Woolwich Community Lions Club has dozens of items up for grabs in their virtual auction, running on Facebook until Dec. 14. Submitted we’ll see what we can do. We spoke with some of the companies that ordinarily give us gifts for the Affair to Remember [holiday event] to give away, she explained. We’ve had a great response, I think we’ve got well over 60 items going in.”

The event came together very quickly over the last few weeks and officially kicked off last Friday, running until December 14. McLaughlin says they wanted to be able to put this event out to the public so people would be able to buy some of their Christmas gifts before it was too late.

All of the items were donated by sponsors, Lion members and residents in the community who want to help support the cause. Items available in the auction include knitted wear, shoes, artwork, gift baskets, household items and the like.

The auction is being held in a Facebook group and those who wish to participate must join. Bidding takes place in the comments section for each item, with McLaughlin noting all comments must be new – no replying to other comments. All information, including value, minimum bid and bid increments, is within the individual post for each item.

McLaughlin says her hope for the event is simple: to raise muchneeded funds for projects to which the club has pledged it support in the community.

“We’ve got a lot of people that are coming to us and saying, ‘we need help, can you do this for us [or] can you do that?’”

To join the auction group, visit facebook.com/ groups/727289997993396.