04/09/2013
Going once, going twice, and sold to the lucky winner! Was the theme of our May meeting. Our very own Gary Lai volunteered to be the honorary auctioneer. Harley kept the mob in check making sure winning bids were correctly recorded. Neil ran back and forth making sure Gary never stopped working! Members donated trees, pots, tools, and I could have sworn I saw a kitchen sink! As you all know prices for raffle items, postage, and supplies have gone up in recent years. Peter Macasieb volunteered to style a couple trees from his own collection in which we auctioned off. Among the more notable items included Peters twisted yamadori style shimpaku. This cascading tree was trained as a young whip, Peter wired the boring out of it and created a truly unique style bonsai! Gary donated a elm cutting that he had started many years ago. The parent tree came from an auction, how fitting its offspring gets donated to an auction! This tree must have had close to a 2.5 to 3 inch trunk; it was styled as a broom, and potted in a nice drum pot. I’ve been to many auctions in the past and have to admit Gary did a phenomenal job! There was no time to chat, Gary was so fast and efficient at one point Leila had to tell him to take a break! We were about to finish the raffle in record time! Not surprising coming from Gary who holds the club record for fastest demo! Heck if I had handed Gary one of my kids he would have auctioned her off in a split second! Yes folks it was that insane! A huge thanks goes out to all members who came to bid, members who ran the auction, and most of all members who donated an items. I’m proud to say we collected enough funds to hold us through until the end of 2011!
