Spring Street Spring Fling Auction…it’s this weekend!

Spring Street International School

Spring Street International School‘s annual “Spring Fling” auction and community celebration is held at the San Juan Island Yacht Club. This year’s event will be May 8th, 2010, 5:00 to 8:30 pm. Here’s the scoop, from the San Juan Island Events Calendar.

Here’s more about the auction items – see ya there!

Here’s  a bit about how the “Fling” came to be, from SSIS’s Jerry Riley:

The “Fling,” as Islanders have come to call it, is the annual fundraiser that has grown from a small art auction presenting student work to the community to the five-figure benefit that provides scholarships to 60% of the students who could not otherwise attend.

TeriLyn Brown, the coordinator of this year’s auction, was drafted into the position last year, after having only been on the Island for three months. Little did she know what she was getting herself into!  But it turns out this is exactly how this successful fundraiser has grown by leaps and bounds over the years – new ideas and new people contributing to the mix.

Past coordinators have been some of our best known Island artists – Beth Hetrick, Becky Kilpatrick, Oak Boesky, with help from others such as Tom Small,  Alison Johnston, Bruce Clark, Nancy Best, the list seems endless. While the fundraiser originally was intended to just fund the art program at the school, its success has made it the main fundraising event.  This year’s Auctioneer, Mike Adams, was the first “official” auctioneer in the Fling’s history, but the very first were two of the teachers’ husbands who, according to Hetrick, “didn’t have a clue, which was actually kind of fun.”

Mary Jane Anderson, another past Parent/Coordinator who has been involved from the beginning, remembers someone remarking, “I guess we should put numbers on things, or something.  It was really learn-as-you-go!”

So this year there will be numbers on things, all 150 of them!  And there is still, and always, the wonderful Student Art.  Along with some by established international artists like Roy Fairchild-Woodard and Jason Napier. And there is still the art teacher, Magda Balise, running her feet off trying to get it all ready, and… the original Auctioneer, Mike Adams, is looking for his tux…..if anyone has seen it….

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