Charity auction to finance Spanish Fort playground upgrades, other needs

SPANISH FORT, Ala. — The Spanish Fort Elementary School PTA is hopeful the fourth annual “Bidding of the Bulls” will continue to provide supplemental funds for programs that might otherwise be pushed aside as the state’s funding woes persist.

Event chairwoman Amy Van Hulzen said an ambitious $35,000 goal has been set for the March 11 auction and evening of sophisticated entertainment at the Daphne Civic Center. Tickets are $25 per person and $45 per couple if purchased by March 1, but $30 and $50 respectively after that date.

Van Hulzen said 14 area restaurants and caterers have already signed on to provide heavy hors d'oeuvres, and the Tommy Morse Band will provide live entertainment, but no one under the age of 21 will be admitted.

Among the most coveted auction items up for bid are two VIP tickets for the entire 2011-12 Spanish Fort High School Toros’ football season; a BCS National Championship football signed by Auburn University football coach Gene Chizik; a private plane ride to Pensacola for lunch with a tour of the Gulf Coast; and two sets of braces provided by a local orthodontist. Van Hulzen said a host of restaurant and spa gift certificates would be available and Bass Pro Shops is donating a six-person tent just in time for spring camping.

Mommies, however, are more likely to clamor for the student-art items each of the classrooms submit as well as a series of what Van Hulzen called “Teacher Features,” or special activities parents can win for their children. For instance, one might feature a limousine ride with the first-grade teachers or a trip for ice cream with the third-grade teachers.

“As a mother, you really love those,” said Van Hulzen, whose younger child, Drake, is an SFES kindergartener.

Formerly known as “A Spring Affair,” every penny of the funds raised by “Bidding of the Bulls” is spent on SFES students and programs, and she said the $30,000 netted during the 2010 event paid for items such as flat-screen TVs for every classroom through which morning announcements are delivered each morning.

“We’d really like to do a new playground system and get a better recreation area for the children,” Van Hulzen said.

The funds are also often allocated to help fund collaborative projects among grade-level teaching units that supplement the curriculum.

In the fall, for instance, kindergarten teachers used their funds to help students make foxes out of leaves and art supplies to complement a unit on woodland creatures, while older students have used the funds to help plot their family trees.

“With proration, our teachers really don’t get a lot of money for supplies and the essentials anymore, so if the PTA is able to help offset the costs of things like the computer lab or art and music programs, we’re happy to do what it takes to keep them going,” she said.