An Evening with the Angels Auction

The St. Joe Auction of 2018 was held on February 24th. The Evening with the Angels is an annual auction dinner, where parents of students, alums, teachers, and friends come together for a great evening. A lot of work went in to make the auction a great success: students sold their raffle tickets, volunteers were recruited, and auction items were gathered.

Auction manager Julie Meersman said work for this year’s auction began as early as August.

“It takes literally hundreds of people to make this event a success,” Mrs. Meersman said.

In fact more than three hundred people donated to the event. This was Mrs. Meersman’s 10th year helping with the auction, and fifth year as auction manager.

FOX Sports newscaster and senior dad Joe Buck hosted the auction this year. He has hosted the past three years, and said this will be his last year as the auctioneer.

“Unless,” he jokingly said, “my daughter Trudy stays another year.”

The auction is located in St. Joseph’s Academy’s gym. It is transformed from a place to workout to an elegant room, filled with lights, streamers, and style.  
New this year was the golden paddle. It is a raffle for a $2,500 credit to use during the live auction! The winner was announced right before the live auction began.

What most students think about when talk of the auction arises is raffle tickets. This is the first year where all raffle tickets are sold and recorded online. Each raffle ticket was $25, and if a person bought four, she would received one for free. The winner of the raffle received the grand cash prize of $10,000!  Also, when a student sold her six tickets, she was rewarded with an auction t-shirt and a comfy dress down day every Wednesday now until the end of the year.

In addition, the class that sold all of their raffle tickets first received a class field trip to Grant’s Farm. Last year, the freshmen were the first class to reach their goal. They had an awesome day filled with dancing elephants, boxing kangaroos, and talking parrots. The sophomores even got to give milk to the goats! This year, the now sophomores pulled it off again for the win, and they will attend another fun day at Grant’s Farm later this year.

Also, the auction office introduced an additional incentive a week before the auction: the next class to sell of their tickets would receive a pancake breakfast and comfy pj day. The juniors loved this idea, and achieved their goal within the end of the day. Lastly, as a school if the student body reached their goal, they received a day off. They did indeed, and earned last Monday off, a much deserved win.

In the past, money from the auction went towards great improvements in the school including repairing the chapel roof, providing scholarships for incoming freshman, building Cup of Joe, updating the Workout Room, and much more. This year, funds from the auction went towards creating a new college counselor space, new sound and lighting systems for the theater, an outdoor prayer garden, and scholarships for incoming freshman.

“Scholarships give every student the opportunity to attend St. Joe, which is one of the most important parts of the auction, and could not happen without raffle sales!” senior Bridget Pelch, member of the Philanthropy organization, said.

It is safe to say all the students, faculty, and staff enjoy everything the auction brings for the school. This year, the auction raised over $600,000.