The Hopkinsville Rotary Auction earned $4,964 from the main auction Tuesday and received $2,262 in Hour Club pledges, chairman Scott Cowan said. After two days, that puts the event total at $57,626.
At the start of Tuesday’s auction, Rotarian Andrew Wilson announced that Planters Bank will match $5,000 in Hour Club donations. Hour Club donations are in $174 increments, which equals the tuition for one credit hour at Hopkinsville Community College.
The auction will continue nightly through Saturday. It will run from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 6 to 10 p.m. Friday and 6 until the last item sells Saturday.
Because of coronavirus restrictions, the public is not attending the auction in person this year at the Memorial Building. All bids are taken on the phone; the number is 270-885-7500.
WHOP carries the auction on 98.7 FM and 1230 AM. A livestream is available on the Hopkinsville Rotary Club’s website and Facebook page. It’s also televised on Spectrum channel 376.
This year marks the club’s centennial anniversary in Hopkinsville and the auction’s 70th anniversary. Proceeds from the auction fund the Rotary Scholars program at HCC, which provides two years of free tuition to any high school graduate in Christian County who maintains at least a moderate grade-point average.
Last year’s auction raised $330,000, which was $30,000 more than the goal for 2019.
Rotarians have acknowledged it will be hard to reach that level this year because some of the auction’s biggest revenue sources, including the diner, cannot be offered this year.
See our coverage of last year’s 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. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
