By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–Even with the changes in format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Henry County Helping Hand Auction has raised just over $200,000, with one more week to go.
Helping Hand President Stacy Hayes said, “To say we are grateful for the response from Henry County is an understatement. The success of the virtual auction has surpassed our wildest expectations. This would never have been possible without the bold decision by our board of directors to pursue this option, the volunteers who work each week, the people who donate, and of course (Auctioneer) Junior Staggs and his team. Henry County has supported Helping Hand for 42 years, and we are so grateful they didn’t take the year off.”
Hayes said the response from Henry Countians has been overwhelming, with over 350 items already donated for this coming Saturday’s fourth and final virtual auction.
Each year, thousands of dollars are raised through Helping Hand for over 80 local non-profit organizations. Interviews with representatives of the recipient organizations continue on our radio stations this week.
Friday’s virtual auction on www.bidlastandwin.com set a new record of $9,050 in total sales. There were 215 items sold in three hours, she said.
Monetary donations contributed throughout the week totaled approximately $17,000, with an additional $10,000 donated by Paris Lions Club.
The Lions Club’s donation is in honor of the National Lions Club’s 100th Anniversary, as well as in memory of the following Lions: Roland Parkhill, Gordon Owens, Curtis Moore and Marcus Rickman. Hayes said, “We continue to be so grateful for the generosity of our fellow Henry Countians.”
Due to the overwhelming turnout, Helping Hand will need to make some changes for the last weekend. The auction will begin earlier, at approximately 11:30 on Friday, February 5th. This will take approximately 5 hours hours, so there will be no pickup of items on Friday.
A few of the goodies that have already been donated for this week are a two-night stay at a cabin at Sewanee, UT Vols tickets, grass from Neyland Stadium, a wall full of lap quilts, ceramic replicas of historic HC buildings, lamps made from recycled materials at BPU, Rae Dunn boxes, an American Girl doll, and 15 “High Voltage” meals from BPU.
Photo by Stacy Hayes.