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Members and friends of St James Parish in Millstadt gathered Saturday evening for the 23rd Annual Fr. Freund Dinner Auction in the St James Parish Center. ‘College Tailgate’ was the theme for this year’s event and the decorations reflected the football season. Many of those attending donned their favorite college or professional football team jerseys at the event.
The festivities began at 5:00 p.m. as dinner was served and the silent auctions began. At 7:00 p.m. the silent auctions ended and the standard auctions began. A variety of unique and interesting items were donated for this years auctions, filling a large tent outside and most of the surrounding walls in the Parish center gymnasium. This year around 600 items were donated for auction. Items for auction range from cash and prizes to trips and parties.
The most special item auctioned each year is the 2nd Grade Communion Quilt. It is created each year by women and mothers in the Parish to commemorate the 2nd graders first communion. Some other items gaining special attention this year were an autographed photo of actor John Travolta, an autographed book authored by college basketball expert Dick Vitale, baseballs autographed by St Louis Cardinal pro baseball Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith and Bob Gibson, and a ‘tailgate’ grill which mounts on the hitch of your truck or SUV and comes with a cordless Margarita blender. There was even a cooler that doubled as a scooter.
The auction was first held 23 years ago to raise funds for the construction of the Parish center. Since then funds from the Dinner Auction have been used to help pay for the Early Childhood Center and other necessary maintenance items at the Parish’s properties. When possible funds have been used in the general budget as well to help keep education at the school as affordable as possible. This year’s event was chaired by David Fischer who was assisted by a multitude of other St James Parish members.
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