What's Up

Issue #16

| What's Goin' On! |

by Uncle Don

The only words that describe the Art From The Heart auction on
October 19, 1996 would be: "SMASHING SUCCESS!".
Although the weather was miserable outside, it was a hot party inside.
The event was held at the Advanced Elastomer Systems Building at
388 S. Main St., in what once was an old B.F. Goodrich company
building. What A.E.S. has done to this building is phenomenal.
It is by far the nicest building in town. You entered on the lobby level
and registered and checked your coat, then proceeded to the second
level where a portion of the art was displayed along with three bars
and several food tables. The food was great and nobody should have
left hungry. You then proceeded to the third level where most of the
artwork was displayed along with two additional bars. All of the art
on the third level went through the silent bid process, where you would
place your bid number and price you wanted to pay on a sheet beside
each item. You would constantly have to return to see if your bid was
the highest, or if someone else had out bid you. If they had, you would
simply make a higher bid.

At approximately 9:30, the verbal auction began with some fifty
items available as well as art items from celebrities such as Bob Hope,
George Clooney, Phyllis Diller, etc... Festivities ended around 11:30
and people were raving as they left the building as to what a wonderful
event it was. The community that put the event together, as well as the
volunteers, could well feel very proud of themselves. I could list names,
but if I did, I would probably miss someone. You know who you are,
and you know what you did to stage this event. You have to be proud
of yourselves.

As of this writing, I don't have a final tally as to how much was raised,
but I can, without reservation, say that this was the biggest fund raising
event EVER for the gay community. I can hazard a guess and say that
approximately twenty-five-thousand dollars was raised. plans are already
being made to make this an annual event and they can only get bigger
and better.

Now that I have spent all of this space throwing accolades as to how
great a party it was, it's time to throw a couple of darts. Though over
500 people were in attendance, only about 10% of them were from the
gay community. When are we going to quit having the

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