Peaches Kerrison, auction assistant, reacts as her father’s bid wins Charles DeAntonio’s oil painting of St. Philip’s––and auctioneer Jeff Miller quips that he spent her inheritance to get it.

This past Saturday, the St. Philip’s Choir hosted the lively and elegant art auction we’d been looking forward to for so long! For months, we had worked to collect magnificent art from extremely generous artists, solicit homemade goodies from our choir chefs and friends, research artists and their artwork, and organize bid sheets for the evening, which would benefit the choir mission to serve as resident choir at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London for a week this August.

Then on Saturday morning, dozens of people arrived early to help set up. Young people distributed flyers to hotels and tourists, and we began arranging art. A crew prepped the kitchen and got ready to receive yummy treats. Young people, led by David Gilbert, created even more art for us! Every available table was used to transform the Parish Hall into an art gallery.

What a magnificent evening! At 5:00 p.m., people started flooding into the Parish Hall. After receiving their bidder numbers, they meandered about, sipping on complimentary beer and wine, catching up with old friends, and writing their numbers down for silent auction treasures.

At 6:00 p.m., our rector, the Rev. Jeff Miller, began the live fine art auction. Excitement was high as many of the pieces garnered rapid bidding from around the room and online. A couple of amateur pieces, such as a blank piece of paper entitled “Bleak Winter Scene” by youth grouper John Gardner, were thrown in for fun, and Jeff wasn’t afraid to call out family members in the crowd when seeking bids.

If you missed it, you missed a most enjoyable evening. We had no idea how much we might yield in this effort, but God blessed us far beyond our wildest imaginations. We raised approximately $36,000!

Before anything is distributed, 10% of what we raised will go back to the church. Then we will purchase airfare and hotel rooms for staff singers, and the remainder will be divided among the volunteer singers to offset their costs––it may even enable some who thought they couldn’t to join us.

We give glory to God for a most successful evening! We are so thankful for all who attended and who spent so generously to support the choir. Our sincere gratitude goes to auctioneer extraordinaire Jeff Miller and his auction assistant, Peaches Kerrison, who did her best Vanna White impression despite never having seen Wheel of Fortune! Our thanks go also to the most generous artists and parishioners who gave so freely of their art, magnificent chefs who created the delicious goodies, and choir members and friends who served as bartenders, clerks, cashiers, and more, working together to make the art auction so successful. A special thank you to Jean Carlton for organizing the delicious cuisine, to Eric Pickford, who stepped in to help in Ben Singleton’s absence, and Rachel Murphy and Chris Walchesky for making online bidding possible. Thank you all for supporting the auction by spreading the word and spending the evening with us! Enjoy your treasures.

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