PINE GROVE — Curiosity seekers may enjoy the trips to caverns, a wild animal park, museum or dinner theater.
Sports fans may prefer a round of golf, a bowfishing charter or a chance to see a baseball game.
Others may find the draw of dazzling diamond jewelry, a homemade dollhouse, a handcrafted firemen’s quilt by Diane Ditzler, or artwork by local artists Margery Wheeler Mattox or David Kintzel to their liking.
All items will be up for grabs during the sixth annual Pine Grove area benefit auction for Operation Hugs & Kisses. The event will be held at 8 a.m. Saturday in the banquet room of Pine Grove Hose, Hook & Ladder Fire Company, 1 Orchard St., Pine Grove. Parking is available on-site. A Chinese auction shop and drop will be held the evening before from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday. The live bidding gets underway Saturday.
According to Kathy Schnoke, Operation Hugs & Kisses secretary, there are more than 200 items available for the live bidding and more than 100 items offered for the Chinese auction.
Last year’s benefit auction raised $26,000.
Operation Hugs & Kisses was formed in 2010 to help the Pine Grove community after two row home fires devastated a large portion of the main street. In September 2011, the nonprofit group also assisted during the community’s devastating flood losses and recovery. The organization consists solely of volunteers dedicated to benefitting their community.
Operation Hugs & Kisses has aided six volunteer fire companies with proceeds from its benefit auction for the last five years. It also adopted a Federal Emergency Management Agency buy-out of green space from the 2011 flood and is working on developing a park-like setting on the property at Laurel and East Pottsville streets, according to Schnoke.
Some of the proceeds have been used to place planters and trash receptacles throughout Pine Grove, Tremont and Donaldson; to replace community playground equipment lost in the flooding; and to help Pine Grove Children’s Aid, Relay for Life, local Boy Scouts, Pine Grove Disaster Relief fund, Pine Grove Lions Club, the holiday lights committee and many other local nonprofit groups.
Operation Hugs & Kisses will continue with its scholarship that was first presented in 2014 to a Pine Grove graduate who has given the most volunteer hours to the community during the student’s high school years. Some of the funds from this year’s event may also be donated to the burn building at the Schuylkill County Fire School, Frackville. Although the burn facility is outside the Pine Grove Area School District, the area’s six fire companies often use it for training.
Schnoke said the group wants to launch a membership drive, hoping to add to its current roster of more than 50 volunteers. Operation Hugs & Kisses meets on the first Monday of every month at the group’s building, 7 Mill Race St., Pine Grove. All are welcome.
For more information on auction items available or to volunteer, visit the group’s Facebook page, call 570-392-6425 or email 2010xoxo@comcast.net.