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Schuylkill YMCA set for biggest fundraiser of year

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The Spirit of the Y Dinner and Auction committee is finishing up preparations for this year’s event, which is expected to be one of the biggest yet.

“We have a lot more items and I think we have grown a lot this year,” Lindsay Ryon, president of the Schuylkill YMCA Board of Directors, said. “I think we have more support from the community than we had in previous years.”

The Spirit of the Y Dinner and Auction will be held Saturday at the Walk In Art Center, Schuylkill Haven. The VIP reception begins at 5 p.m., with doors to open for all other ticket holders at 6:30 p.m. The fundraiser will include dinner catered by Roman Delight, Orwigsburg, a silent auction and live auction.

Meghan Holobetz, member of the dinner committee and board of directors, said last year’s event cleared $56,000, but they are aiming for a bigger goal Saturday.

“This year, our goal is to clear $75,000,” Holobetz said.

Items to be auctioned off include a trip to Vail, Colorado; diamond necklace from Murphy Jewelers; Botox and braces from Sadowski Orthodontics; needlepoint men’s golf belt; designer purses; a night at Hershey Hotel with spa voucher; a GoPro camera; autographed sports memorabilia and tickets to games for the Philadelphia Phillies, Flyers and 76ers and Penn State football.

“All the donations are from the community, mostly from the community at large. Some are outside of the community we go to, but it’s really amazing how the community supports the Y,” Holobetz said.

Ryon said last year the YMCA auctioned off a week of summer camp for $75 and a Y youth membership for $100. This year it was changed to the Y Youth Experience, which encompasses youth memberships, summer camp, teen programs, preschool programs and sports programs.

“This year we changed it to the Y Youth Experience so that we can broaden the age of children we assist and the different programs we can sponsor them for,” she said.

Holobetz said the committee began planning for this year’s dinner and auction last July. She said an active board is needed to pull off an event of this size.

“The Y board is really active trying to rebuild it back and build ourselves within the community,” she said.

Gracie Gilbert, community relations coordinator, said this is her first time working on the Spirit of the Y Dinner and Auction. She agreed that it takes a dedicated group to make a successful event.

“We all put a lot of work in it. This is my full-time job, this is what I do all day. I work on all this stuff. And they all have full-time jobs themselves, everybody on the committee, so they’re coming home from their full-time jobs and putting in more effort into making the dinner happen. They, out of the goodness of their hearts in their free time, come and make a really awesome dinner,” she said.

One factor that the committee cannot plan for is the weather. Ryon said a snowstorm hit during the dinner last year, and it did iaffect the turnout.

“That’s why again I think this year we can do a little bit better because, knock on door, the weather,” she said.

For more information, visit the Schuykill YMCA’s website, www.schuylkillymca.org, or its Facebook page.


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