ESTEVAN - For the second year, the Estevan Kinettes are organizing an online auction to raise money for Telemiracle.
After the success of last year's virtual event, the Kinettes decided to put it together again, but for that, they need some help from the community.
"We're looking for donations. It could be from companies or people that are doing homemade stuff. We're going to do the auction on the 9th-14th of February. And we can get donations up to the day," said auction committee chair Angela Bresciani.
She added that they'd like to beat last year's total, but with a difficult economic situation and the ongoing pandemic, they'll be happy for any kind of support.
"We can't do a lot of our normal fundraising. And this is no contact with anybody, so we're going to give it a whirl to see if round two works," Bresciani said.
Last year they had local businesses and individuals providing them with restaurant gift cards, homemade blankets, chocolate bombs, oil changes, baby blankets and paintings, all of which were posted online, allowing people to view and bid on the items.
"We had a largely different selection of stuff, which is really good to gauge to every age, males, females and kids. So it was a really good variety that we got," Bresciani said
This year they are again open to any kind of support community members are willing to provide, and they hope to see a good variety of options.
"We're very happy to get whatever we receive, $5 to like $100, we were just happy with any donations that we can give back to Telemiracle," Bresciani said.
If someone is willing to support the Kinettes, they can reach out to Bresciani on Facebook or message the Estevan Kinette Club page to get the address to drop the donation off.
All items will be posted on Facebook ahead of the auction. The bidding will start on Feb. 9 in form of comments under each item and will close on Feb. 14, with the highest bidder at the moment becoming a winner.
"Everybody can stay tuned on our Facebook page. I believe we're going to be adding items when we get them in. This way people can see what we have before the auction date but no bidding will go on until that day," Bresciani explained.
The post was issued on Jan. 12, and they already had a few businesses and individuals reach out offering their support.
"Within the first couple hours we got five people that already messaged us," Bresciani said.
"Thank you to anybody that is going to donate. We appreciate everything our community has done for the Estevan Kinette Club and Telelmiracle."
Estevan Kinettes will take all money raised through the auction to Telemiracle 46 that will be held on March 5-6 in Regina. The funds collected through the Saskatchewan Kinsmen and Kinettes’ biggest event of the year help the foundation provide specialized mobility and medical equipment to people and organizations around Saskatchewan, as well as travel assistance for those in need of vital medical treatment outside their home community.
