Little has changed about the Brooksville Rotary Club's fundraiser since 1979, except the amount of cash that pours in.
By DUANE BOURNE
Published March 21, 2004
BROOKSVILLE - More than two decades ago, when there were only about 40,000 people in Hernando County, a small group of people took to the airwaves, auctioning whatever they could get their hands on - all for the benefit of their neighbors.
The year was 1979.
The Brooksville Rotary Club's 26th annual radio auction is set for Saturday. And though the community fundraiser has grown steadily since its humble beginnings, the club's message - service above self - has remained the same, said Bob Barnett, a co-chairman of the event.
The auction "has come a long way," added Al Dawson, another Rotary member.
A Rotarian since 1976, Dawson has answered the ringing telephones at every one of the previous 25 auctions.
But the 76-year-old who lives near Lake Lindsey says he was only one of several people who should be credited for getting the auction started.
"I played a part in it. But I was not the key person," Dawson said, who recalled that the Dade City Rotary Club also had a radio auction in the window of a Chevrolet dealership on U.S. 301 during the 1970s.
The person most responsible for Brooksville's auction, Dawson said, was a man who had owned a radio station in rural Pennsylvania and brought the radio auction idea with him to Florida. The man, whose name Dawson couldn't recall, also had been involved in the annual shadow-sighting ritual of Punxsutawney Phil each Groundhog Day in Pennsylvania, Dawson said.
Basically, the Brooksville Rotary auction "has been the same ever since," Dawson said.
Bid takers answer the same number of telephones: 10. The SunTrust Bank office in downtown Brooksville is still the auction house. And you still have to be able to call someone's bluff, Dawson said.
Dawson says that after so many years working the auction, he's wise to the tricks of some of the callers. Don't bother trying to get one by him.
"Some people try to play tricks on you," he said. "They try to tie up the telephone lines near the end of the bidding session so that they can make the highest bid.
"We just tell them to make their best offer," he said. "It has never changed."
But there has been at least one change over the years: the amount of money raised. "It has grown exponentially from an affair that made $6,000 to $8,000 to one where we expect to make $30,000," said retired Dr. Richard Trump, the group's secretary.
As Dawson pointed out, the need for charitable giving is as big as ever.
"Of course, as the county grew, there was more need for charitable things," he said. "Back then, a lesser number of donations did a lot more than it does today."
This year, about $40,000 worth of merchandise and gift certificates has been donated for the auctions. About 40 community organizations and Rotary activities will share in the proceeds from the auction, which is broadcast on WWJB-AM 1450 in Brooksville.
"This is our major fundraiser. We only have three, and this is the biggest," Barnett said. "You have got fishing trips, a used car - a good used car," Barnett said, describing some of the featured items. "We have savings accounts, savings bonds."
More than three months of preparation - soliciting businesses and working out the logistics - go into the event.
The service organization's meetings leading up to Saturday's auction have been dominated by the cajoling of Barnett and co-chairman Dudley Hampton, who Dawson calls a "major charger-upper" for the auction. Barnett says Trump is a yeoman, doing unheralded deeds behind the scenes.
Trump, who has taken bids in the past, will make sure that the on-air hosts are given the current bids in a timely manner by coordinating more than 40 volunteers.
"I kind of keep the thing organized," said Trump, who has been a Rotarian since 1974 and of the Brooksville club since 1986. "Manning the phones is quite a trip. They are constantly ringing. I make sure the bids don't get screwed up."
His job is no easy task. As a matter of fact, it starts "getting a little crazy" as soon as a bell rings at 1 p.m.
Then, the items are described at the top of each half-hour session by the nine on-air hosts. Countless bidders who tune in on the radio call a special telephone at the bank office and make their offers.
A computerized screen updates the bids throughout each session and displays the money raised.
"Two years ago, it was written in a grease pencil," Trump said. "It made the process prone to mistakes."
Six runners take bids to the announcers in the radio room.
At the end of each half hour, the bell rings again, bringing that particular session to a close. Rotary members, including Hernando County Clerk of Courts Karen Nicolai, stand sentry in the bank lobby issuing the contracts and instructing winners to pick up their prizes at the businesses that donated them.
By the end of the auction at 6 p.m., there is one overriding feeling.
"We are just tired," Barnett said.
- Duane Bourne can be reached at 352 754-6114. Send e-mail to dbourne@sptimes.com
AT A GLANCE
WHAT: Brooksville Rotary Club's 26th annual Live On Air radio auction
WHEN: 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday WHERE: The fundraising auction will be broadcast on WWJB-AM 1450.
TO BID: Call 754-5549 during auction hours on Saturday.
