Scholarship Auction Raises 40K
July 31, 2007
WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Scholarship opportunities for future Southwestern Oklahoma State University student-athletes became considerably greater thanks primarily to a fundraising auction that surpassed even the grandest expectations of the event.
When auctioneer’s final gavel sounded more than $40,000 had been raised. The wild three-hour evening featured spirited bidding among many of the 250 participants with several items fetching more than $1,000.
Rouben Tourian, SWOSU assistant athletic director and coordinator of the event, said that he could not have imagined a better outcome if he had tried.
“No one knew what to expect since this is the first time we’ve ever tried it here,” Tourian said. “The support for the auction just began to grow and grow and grow. Not once were we turned down in our requests. Many times a merchant or someone else would donate an item(s) of much greater value than we had originally anticipated.”
More than 100 different items were auctioned off ranging from a two-man turkey hunt in western Oklahoma to a 12-month pampering at a local beauty salon. The bulk of the items were auctioned off in a silent fashion before the Hawaiian-style dinner. The remaining “big ticket” items were presented live for bid to the audience by special guest and KOCO-TV Sports Director Mark Rodgers and auctioneer Brandon Hinz.
Some of the items that fetched the largest bid were as follows:
$4,000 Daily Oklahoman’s Luxury Suite at Bricktown Ballpark for 1 game
$3,800 50-Plasma Television Screen donated by Tautfest
$1,800 One-day, two-person private fishing trip with ESPN star Jimmy Houston
$1,200 Autograph team basketball from 2006 NBA Champion Miami Heat
$850 Autograph Toby Keith custom guitar
“The success of the event could not have happened without the help of so many people who lent their time, talents, efforts and considerable generosity.” Tourian said. “I’m especially thankful for the support of (SWOSU) president John Hays and the university administration who helped green light this whole process.”
SWOSU athletics director Cecil Perkins did not hesitate in his endorsement of the evening but paid particular praise to the one person primarily responsible.
“Rouben worked his tail off to make this event a success, and all of us are better off because of his efforts” Perkins said. “The money will make a tremendous difference in what we type of aid packages we can provide for our future student athletes.”
Tourian has already begun crafting plans of how to make next year’s auction event bigger and better.
“I think once word spreads just how well the response was to the scholarship auction we will have even more items and more people at next year’s event. Several people have heard about it and have called asking me how to get involved next year. $40,000 is a pretty high mark to achieve in one night in Weatherford, Oklahoma. We now got are starting point and look for even better things in the future.”