PROFILE - The History of the TCP Auction, as told by original volunteer Barbara Shannon

An experienced, efficient committee now works year-round, dividing the many duties involved in putting on the Auction, but Barbara Shannon remembers the first year, in 2001, when four people did the majority of the work.

“The only fundraiser that the Carying Place had had up to that time was the yard sale,” she recalls. “We felt like we needed another fundraiser of some kind. Joe looked into having a commercial firm come in to do an Art Auction, but after his investigation, he decided to do it himself.”

Joe Rappl was Executive Director of The Carying Place at the time. The other two who made the first event happen were Bill Dingwell and Betsy Chapman. Phyllis Bennett, who is currently a leader on the auction committee, was able to help out a little that year, but had some health issues that limited her involvement. Betty Bryan, long-time, faithful volunteer, helped with computer entry.

“I just remember meeting the first time we all met, it was Betsy and Bill, Joe and me. It was really the blind leading the blind, because none of the four of us were local people who had lived here very long. I came in 2000, that was 2001. . . .

“We just trounced around and got donations. I remember identifying someone in the Kirk who had a friend who had a little gallery somewhere, just each one of us talked and reached out and managed to identify people and somehow or another we got enough stuff together to have an auction.”

The first “Art and Treasure Auction” was held at MacGregor Downs Country Club and cleared between $5,000 and $6,000, about three times as much as the average yard sale.

“It did well enough that we thought it was worth pursuing,” Shannon said.

The next year, The Carying Place rented the Embassy Suites hotel. “The scary part on that one was there was a convention going on in half of the ballroom, and they wouldn’t let us in to display half of the stuff until 6:00. Those of us who were getting everything out were still in our sweat shirts when the guests came, “ she recalled. Nevertheless, the Auction was a success, and the committee learned a little more.

In 2004, they tried out Exploris museum in downtown Raleigh, before returning to Cary permanently in 2005, after the Matthews House built the ballroom and made it the perfect venue. During those first years, the focus gradually expanded from an "Art and Treasure" auction, as the entries began to broaden. The profits grew as well, rising to about $20,000 in the third year, and to $50,000 in 2006, the first year of the Live Auction with “priceless experiences.”

Today the Auction is the largest fundraiser, depended upon to bring in a large percentage of the Carying Place’s annual income.

Shannon notes, as she reflects back through the years, that the auctions helped grow people’s interest in the Carying Place that had not been reached before.

“We realized it was offering us a venue for reaching out into the Cary community,” Shannon said. “Before, our reach for support had mainly been the churches. This way we were going directly to businesses, and reaching the leaders in the community, getting them to come to the event and to serve in honorary positions, it became not just fund raising, but friend raising.”

A big thank you to this year's hardworking Auction Committee: Mercedes Auger, Sharon Ayers, Phyllis Bennett, Beth Blackman, Kelly Carter, Cathy Cooper, Wendy Coulter, Melinda Crouse, Wendy Dawson, Beverly Eischen, Pat Hudson, Alice McCall, Sameena Rashid, Barbara Shannon and Sally Turnbull. Without you the Auction would not be possible.