Auction raising funds to support St. Joseph youth
By Kendra Simpson
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater St. Joseph is hosting its annual Empower Auction on Saturday, with prizes St. Joseph residents — and Chiefs fans — won’t want to miss.
Beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Metropolitan in Downtown St. Joseph, the event will feature both a live auction and a silent auction leading up to the event. The evening will include live music, a DJ, a cash bar, themed cocktails from McCormick’s distillery and appetizers from Luna’s Dining and Catering
The silent auction, which can be found online at bbbsstjoe.squarespace.com/empowerauction, features over a hundred items including free Crumbl Cookies for a year, gift baskets from local shops and boutiques, jerseys signed by Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, and much more.
The live auction, which participants must be present for, includes even bigger prizes such as island retreats, an exclusive dining experience and a Chiefs fan package with seasonal game and summer training camp tickets.
“There’s a wide range of things for people to bid on,” said Cheyenne Dorrell-Giles, executive director of the St. Joseph location. “There’s not one type of person that will enjoy it. There’s lots of things for lots of interests.”
For the first time, the Empower Auction is also featuring honorees. These honorees are people in the community who are fundraising for Big Brothers Big Sisters and bringing in thousands of dollars for the cause.
“We have four honorees and they’ve got together some awesome live packages and some awesome online packages,” Dorrell-Giles said. “We’ve been raising money through this auction for the last couple of months so this is kind of a celebration of that.”
The proceeds collected from the silent and live auction will go toward supporting the nonprofit in creating another role for the organization.
“Big Brothers Big Sisters is a staff of two right now,” Dorrell-Giles said. “We have been hoping to add a third person. When we looked at our budget, we said, ‘We have to make $30,000 to make that possible.’ So that is our goal for this auction … so we can serve more children in our community.”
Currently, there are at least 30 children in St. Joseph in need of adults who will stand with them and defend their potential. The hope with this auction is to raise enough funds to hire another employee of the nonprofit so they can better provide for those children.
To learn more about the auction or to support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater St. Joseph, visit the organization’s website at bbbsstjoe.squarespace.com.
