DALLAS — The Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction is going, going – gone for another year.
Event chairman Gerard Geise summed up the four-day auction as successful, although preliminary funding totals from the auction and vendors are still being collected and calculated.
“It is too early to estimate the overall amount raised,” Geise said.
The auction was first held in 1946 to help fund the rural Back Mountain Memorial Library. At that time, the auction was held at Howard Risley’s barn on Lehman Avenue in Dallas, but since has been moved to the library grounds at 96 Huntsville Road.
Today, the event serves the same purpose and raises funds to help the organization offer a variety of community programs, as well as increasing its current book collection, eBooks, DVDs and books on CD.
Some highlights of the 71st annual event include a damp start on Thursday, July 6, and Friday, July 7, as light rain showers sprinkled down on auction goers.
“The pizza and ice cream vendors said the crowds were good on Thursday,” Geise said.
Geise estimated opening day attracted nearly 2,000 guests.
“The bus driver (who was shuttling people from the County Club Shopping Center parking lot to the library) said there was a big crowd at the parking lot,” he said.
Glass blowing demonstrations by Keystone College’s Mobile Glass Blowing Studio on Saturday and Sunday, July 8 and 9, sparked interest in the delicate art form.
“The glass blowing demonstrations were very well received,” Geise said. “We are hoping to bring them back next year.”
The auction block, as always, was a point of interest as a Stow and Davis Furniture Company mid-century mahogany banker’s desk, complete with documentation of previous owners, sold for $1,000 to a Pittston lawyer, Geise said.
Local artist Sue Hand’s annual painting of the auction tied in with the event’s theme “Everything Old is New Again,” as she included the image of 92-year-old Willis Ide, one of the descendants of Dallas Township’s foundering families, standing behind her infant grandson.
Hand’s painting sold for $2,700, Geise said. Two of Hand’s students, Janet Federichi, 13, and Sarah Stallard, 15, also painted auction scenes.
“Altogether, the paintings brought in over $3,000,” Geise said.
The Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction takes several hundred volunteers to set up tents, organize work some of the tents and booths.
Geise thanked all volunteers, vendors and auction-goers for another successful year. He will hand over the committee to event co-chairs Pat Peiffer and her brother Bill Peiffer.
