Auction Chair Jane Birckhead of Morrow, Ohio, touts the private fly fishing vacation prize during a recent Rotary Club meeting.
Step into Victorian elegance at the legendary Hotel del Coronado near San Diego. Take the family to Disney World and stay for a week in an Orlando townhouse. Host your own whiskey blending party for eight.
Those are some of the vacation and party packages available to the public in a luxury raffle that is part of the Annual Believe 2 Achieve auction and summer party on Aug. 7 at the Brain Brew Distillery in Newtown.
The annual fund raiser is sponsored by The Rotary Club of Cincinnati and its philanthropic arm the Rotary Foundation of Cincinnati.
Proceeds benefit three charities serving children and adults with disabilities, which means your raffle or auction dollars do double duty, helping to support Stepping Stones Camp Allyn in Batavia, The Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati and Visionaries + Voices, which helps artists with disabilities find their voices and their place in the community.
Since it was launched in 2012, Believe 2 Achieve has raised more than $1 million to support programs for children and adults with disabilities, said Rotary Club of Cincinnati Executive Director Linda Muth, of Anderson Township.
Vacation packages have always been a highlight in the live auction at the event. This year you don’t have to be at the party to have a chance at one of those vacations.
The Rotary will sell raffle tickets for $100 each, offering a chance to win your choice of one of five vacation or event packages. Purchasers designate their choice on the back of the ticket. One ticket will be drawn at the party. The remaining four options will become part of the live auction at the event.
“We are only selling 150 raffle tickets,” Muth said. “The winner does not have to be present to win.”
Vacation packages available for the raffle are:
· A five-day, four-night stay at the Hotel del Coronado, the Victorian beach resort in California where Marilyn Monroe’s “Some Like it Hot” was filmed. Includes air fare and tickets to local attractions. Value, $4,500.
· One week in an Orlando townhouse that sleeps six, plus a $500 gift card for Disney World. Value, $2,500.
· A two-night glamping package for four at Kings Island Camp Cedar Resort, with tickets to Kings Island and the Cincinnati Zoo. Value, $2000.
· Brain Brew Custom Whiskey Blending Class in your home for eight people with a custom bottle of whiskey for each guest and $200 in catering. Value, $1,500.
· Private sporting clay and shotgun lessons for four with acclaimed shooting instructor Mike Fridenmaker. Value, $2,000.
Vacation options expand if you attend the event and bid at the live auction, where additional get-aways include a three-day, four-night privately guided fly-fishing trip at the exclusive Double R Lodge in Montana – a $12,000 value with a starting bid of $3,000. A French Quarter get-away for two couples includes four days and three nights at the historic Hotel Monteleone, gift certificates to Café De monde and dinner at Antoine’s – a $3,000 value with a starting bid of $500.
Auction chair Jane Birckhead donned fishing gear at a recent Rotary meeting to describe those auction prizes that she called welcome treats after more than a year of pandemic isolation.
The event also includes a silent auction with show-stopping prizes available to bidders at the event or at home, using smart phones or computers.
The more than 100 silent auction options include: original artwork, jewelry, gift card packages, a Waterford crystal vase, four FC Cincinnati suite tickets and a piece of Cincinnati history – two marble-topped booths from LaNormandie Restaurant with memorabilia from LaNormandie and The Maisonette. The silent auction also has a vacation option – a week in a Longboat Key, Florida, condo at the luxury Cedars Tennis Resort.
Believe-2-Achieve includes cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and a buffet dinner. Tickets are $175 per person. Local 12 news personality Bob Herzog will MC the event.
Event sponsors will get to create their own custom bourbon blend with the help of mixologist Molly Wellmann.
For tickets, sponsorship information, to purchase a raffle ticket or learn how to bid from home, contact The Rotary Club of Cincinnati at www.cincinnatirotary.org or call 513-421-1080.
The Rotary Club of Cincinnati was founded in 1910 as a service and networking organization with a mission to provide selfless service in the community and the world and to meet needs of children with physical and social needs.