WASP - What A Super Party!

Last night I MC'd a fundraising gala for WASP, the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program and wow, WASP - What A Super Party! WASP supports people with disabilities and enables them to participate in sports, particularly skiing and riding, and many Paralympians got their start with WASP. It's an amazing program! Truly inspiring!

I think everybody left the 1st annual Friends of WASP Gala with a smile on their face. Possibly because they made a donation to a wonderful cause, enjoyed the scrumptious dinner, or won a fantastic auction prize. But I imagine more than a few left smiling because they'd had the opportunity to laugh their heads off. Why? Well, it was laughing at me. Not with me, but at me.

I've MC'd many events before but I've never been an Auctioneer. When I saw the program outline and it listed a live auction I asked the organizer if she'd arranged for an auctioneer to do the auction but she had hoped I'd do it. I suggested she find someone experienced because I'd never done this before and I really didn't want to risk not raising enough money for WASP. After all, it was a fundraiser. But she was confident that I'd be fine. Wow, was she wrong!!

I now know for sure that I am clearly not a good auctioneer, entertaining perhaps, but not good. However, my attempt at doing it made everyone in the room laugh, especially me, at myself!! I was horrible, and I'm not just saying that to be all dramatic. I forgot what the bid amount was at, not once, but at least a half a dozen times. No joke. I also couldn't keep track of who had most recently bid, it was a mess, but a funny one. My own confusion even confused the bidders and we weren't sure who had bid what and even one bidder upped his own current bid. It was pretty crazy. Clearly I'd never done this before and everyone in the room could tell. But luckily, the room was filled with some amazing people who could easily relate to how difficult this was and in the end, the target fundraising goal was reached and everyone was very entertained.

I don't think I'll be signing up to be an Auctioneer anytime soon although it turns out some people thought it was actually a ploy of mine to be so messed up to either get sympathy bids or just to confuse bidders to get the bids higher....well, no, that was definitely not the case, but hey, if it came across that way then I'm ok with that. Whatever it takes to raise the most amount of money for the great cause right? And after the evening was over, many people commented on what a great job I'd done. I think they were being really nice.

Hey, you have to be able to laugh at yourself right? Well, it was a great laugh! What a super party!