New Trier’s annual auction for the Make-A-Wish foundation celebrated its 19 th year this year, with many interesting items up for grabs won by a mixture of students and teachers.

The Make-A-Wish foundation, now in its 32nd year of establishment, grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions such as leukemia, brain tumors, and lymphoma.

The auction is put together every year by the business department, and many items are donations provided by families in the New Trier township. The items range from CDs, to jewelry, to signed prints, to sports gear, to sports tickets, to home accessories, and many more after that.

Last Friday, the second floor rotunda and two connecting hallways were all lined with tables set up featuring the different kinds of items available for auction, and students were walking all around to see what items they could get for themselves as well as others. There was also a popcorn machine set up near one of the benches in the rotunda that was taking in donations of five cents or more throughout the lunch periods, the busiest periods of the entire day for the auction. The combination of the items sold in addition to the popcorn sales should make this year a successful one.

All throughout the day people were standing in front of tables marking their names down to win items, and in some cases, would even go back multiple times in a period to make sure that no one would be bidding above them, and if so, they would keep going back to secure that their highest bid. While it could seem like an act of selfishness, it’s truly not at its core, because all the money put towards items goes straight to Make-A-Wish, so the more money that gets donated, the better.

Dawn Wilson, a business teacher that spearheads the auction along with help from other business teachers, says that “The big ticket items are always sports tickets and autographed memorabilia.” This statement ringed true, with the highest-grossing item being a signed, framed poster of Scottie Pippin that was sold for $275. Other items I noticed were taking in large amounts were, not only sports tickets, but electronics such as an iPod Touch, certain pieces of jewelry, home decor, and even an autographed poster of Justin Bieber, which seemed like it was going to go to one of New Trier’s faculty members. Wilson states that, however, “More students win items” than teachers do.

In 2002, the auction raised around $13,000 for the Make-A-Wish foundation, which was the highest donation year in the auction’s history, surpassing the desired goal of each year by about $3,000. While the results have not yet been revealed at the time of this writing, from observations looking at all the things that people were bidding on and, more importantly, how much they were bidding, it seems that this year’s auction should have no problem meeting that goal.

Of course, the amount of money raised is not the key aspect of this. While larger amounts are great, it’s really the concept of the auction that makes the entire day a great experience.  Since 1980, the foundation has granted over 200,000 wishes and counting, and now even more will get to be granted in part by New Trier’s incredibly helpful auction.

Not only did many students and teachers bid on items all throughout the day, but there was also a webpage set up that allowed other students, teachers, and families of the community to bid on items online, creating an opportunity for an even larger amount of donations to the foundation.