The 25th Annual Jefferson Rotary Charity Auction was held on Friday, November 17th at the Greene Room Events Center at Wild Rose Casino and Resort.

Organizers say the event raised a gross total of $63,000 and included over 30 live and 100 silent auction items. The highest bid item was a skybox rental for an Iowa Cubs baseball game that went for $2,000. Auction Chair Susan Laehn says all of the proceeds from their main fundraiser goes back to community projects and organizations. She describes some of the recent donations Rotary has made.

“For several years we saved proceeds from our charity auction to put toward the new dog park (at the animal shelter) in town. So we gave $50,000 to that. We gave last year from our auction about $10,000 in community grants. We also set some money aside from last year’s auction to be used for another future large project as and when that arises in the community.”     

Laehn points out some of the grants Rotary gave include Jefferson and Rippey Public Libraries, Greene County Youth Athletic Association, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Program, among others. 

Another highlight of the evening was at the end of the event raising $7,000 during the Fund-a-Need, where all of those donations would go toward mental health resources for students in the Greene County and Paton-Churdan School Districts.