A huge boost in cash donations Saturday pushed the 2020 Hopkinsville Rotary Auction to a quarter-million-dollar fundraiser.
At the conclusion of the six-day auction, the tally was $255,153, chairman Scott Cowan reported.
Rotarians received $90,631 in pledged donations to the Hour Club on the final night and collected $26,112 in the main auction with 172 items sold.
The auction, in its 70th year, was postponed from April because of the coronavirus, and at one point there was talk of putting it off entirely this year, Cowan said earlier in the week.
Several changes were made because of the virus — the most significant being the absence of a live audience at the Memorial Building. The public listened or watched the auction on media outlets or online and called in bids.
The auction helps fund the Rotary Scholars program at Hopkinsville Community College. Every graduate of a local high school, who has at least a moderate grade point average, can attend the community college with no tuition for two years.
Cowan said the list of Hour Club donors will be available to view this week on the club’s website. Hour Club donations are made in increments of $174, the cost of tuition for one credit hour.
See our coverage of the 2020 Rotary auction:
- Hopkinsville Rotary Club postpones annual auction until Sept. 14
- Hopkinsville Rotary Auction, minus the live audience, starts Monday
- Hopkinsville Rotary Auction pulls in more than $50,000 on opening night
- Rotary Club gets a matching offer from Planters Bank to boost auction
- Halfway through Rotary Auction’s novel run, chairman makes plea for Hour Club donors
- Rotarians hit the $100,000 mark and head into final two nights of auction
- Rotary Auction pulls in a surprising total
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
