If you RSVP'ed to attend the Auction, you received your catalog last week. If you haven't yet done so, please take time before Saturday night to dog-ear or post-it note the pages containing all the great items you'll want to bid on. When you enter the Marriott, the large amount and amazing spectacle of items up-for-bid will make you so awestruck that you'll need time to recover and gather your senses so to be able to "strategize" with your spouse on what to bid on or if you should guarantee-bid anything. And don't forget to bring that catalog with you. That's your Saturday night playbook!

If you really want something at the Auction, and you don't want to take the chance you'll be outbid by fellow, wily, competitive parents, you need to guarantee-bid by jumping down the bidding form to the final, highest amount to bid. Yes, you'll pay a little more than you thought, but you'll assure yourself the purchase, and you can write off this excess payment as a tax-deductible donation.

 

Another technique I recommend on Auction night is to make sure you buy a "Live Auction Opportunity" ticket. With only 100 tickets in total available to buy, you have a 1 in 100 chance in winning! The cost for a ticket is only $100, and the winner gets to choose one item from the Live Items up for bid, automatically winning that item! Now I've never been to Las Vegas, but isn't a 1 in 100 chance fairly good for a raffle like this? After all, the chances of winning the Washington State Lotto is 1 in 6,991,908.

 

My final words of wisdom is to arrive early due to the limited street parking and/or wait for valet parking. Those who signed up for VIP status get to check-in at 4:30 and start the bidding (and partying) early. The rest should arrive starting at 5:00.

Past school parent Mary Comstock was the original creator of the following poem that I've since rewritten. As you know, we're only two days away from this fun and vital event! So with apologies to the inspiration behind the poem, Clement Moore, and apologies to Mary if I've butchered her original creation with my 2016 rewrite, I present for you to enjoy reading...

     

 

The school faculty and I are so grateful for all the generous bidding you'll be doing at the Seattle Marriott Bellevue to support St. Louise, all the wonderful fellowship we will get to enjoy with fellow St. Louisers, and all the unbelievable efforts coming from our Auction volunteers! We want to thank those parents who took on the big tasks of being committee chairpersons. Your commitment to the school is appreciated. And to the two who took on the biggest task - chairing the auction - a giant debt of gratitude is due Esther Magnotti and Julianne Read! Thank you, ladies, for your generosity, leadership, and hard work! Let's all be sure to personally thank these two when we see them!

p.s.

We could really use your help to promote St. Louise School to your neighbors, co-workers, and extended family members who have school-age children or upcoming preschoolers. One way to spread the "Good News" about a Catholic school education is to invite these people to our fall Open House - to be held THIS MONDAY, November 14, from 6:30-7:30PM. Visitors start in our main lobby to meet me and our 8th grade student ambassadors, and then they are taken on tours of our campus, able to stop in to teachers' classrooms and ask questions about our school. YOU TOO ARE INVITED to attend Monday's Open House. Current families often like to stop into a specialist teacher's classroom to talk about his/her curriculum, as this discussion might have been missed during September's Curriculum Night. You also are welcome to take a "sneak peek" at next year's homeroom teachers, introducing yourself and your child to whom might be his/her homeroom teacher next year. Thanks in advance to all the school families who will be inviting guests and/or attending themselves! See you Monday between 6:30-7:30 pm.