For our Da Vinci Community we have highlighted the most important ways you can help make the Auction a success:
-
- Solicit donations or make your own donations
- Sell Golden Ticket raffle tickets to family and friends
(be sure to buy some for yourself!)
- Attend the Auction (May 2, 2009)

We recognize that to do all three of these things it may be challenge. But we hope that your family will find a way to contribute in the ways mentioned above. A successful auction allows the school to invest in technology, professional development for the teachers, classroom resources and materials, sports equipment, art & music, and other areas that provide the best possible education for the students.

Da Vinci Academy

Annual Benefit Auction
May 2, 2009
Q Center in St. Charles

Explore Your Future

Tentative Program
Registration 6:00 PM
Reception and Appetizers 6:00 PM
Take A Chance Sales, Golden Ticket Sales, and Buy A Bottle 6:00 PM
Dinner at 7:30 PM

Silent Auction Closing Times
Blue Silent Auction Closes at 8:00 PM
Silver Silent Auction Closes at 8:45 PM

Live Auction at 9:00 PM

During the Live Auction Program:
Fund-a-Project
Take a Chance Raffles
Golden Ticket Raffles

Dessert, Coffee & After Dinner Cocktails

Ticket Prices
$75.00 per ticket
Four Tickets for $ 280.00
Six Tickets for $ 410.00
Eight Tickets for $540.00 (Full Table)

Springsteen Tickets!

Announcing our first big donation - four tickets to see Bruce Springsteen at the United Center! The concert date is May 12, just 10 days after the auction, so arrange your babysitters now so you can have the date free for when you win the tickets!

More details:

Section 231
Row 2
Seats 1-4
Includes a Parking Pass
Lexus Club Level
Value:$ 412.00

Class Project ideas

Some news from the Class Projects team (Anita Swartwood and Amy Fleck):

Example of a Kjell Sandved poster:


Pre-K:
Pre-K will take inspiration from the artist Kjell Sandved who makes alphabet posters out of the extraordinary patterns on butterfly wings and in nature. They will explore around the school to find things in their surroundings that resemble the alphabet, photograph them and arrange them into a poster.


Kindergarten:
Will work on an outdoor garden piece. We are hoping to create a turtle family from clay pots. The intent is to have a parent turtle leading their children out into the world to "Explore."

Third Grade: Third grade will be doing a piece based on a map of the United States. We have yet to determine whether we will build it from maps, postcards or general items.

Other grades/advisories have ideas in the germination stage, stay tuned for more details. Some of the ideas include a torn paper/fabric collage, mosaic or pointillism, kaleidescopes, a written project in the "cerealism" style by artist Michael Albert, and painted Adirondack chairs.

If you'd like to get involved with class projects or have ideas to suggest, please post them in the comments or contact one of the volunteers involved.

Auction News

There will be an Auction meeting this Wednesday, February 18, 2009 in the front lobby of school right after drop-off. We hope you can make it! The agendas at this time of year are heavily focused on Procurement - figuring out which donations we can get, how to target new businesses or encourage previous donors to contribute again, etc. If you are soliciting donations yourself, be sure to check the DVAcademy.org Auction webpage for the donor letter and form, as well as sponsorship forms.

Arlene Westbrook reports that she has begun soliciting donations and has several promising leads. There are rumors that Springsteen tickets are coming...stay tuned for the details and dates of that exciting event.

Kick-off meetings, photos of previous events

Michelle Milo has been hosting kick-off meetings for Procurement for the 2009 Da Vinci Academy Auction this week. If you wanted to attend one but haven't had the chance, please contact her to set up a time. Procurement is obtaining items to be auctioned off at the event on May 2, 2009. We'd love your help on this important committee.

Additionally, we have some photos of previous years' events that we'll be adding in the coming days. For starters, here's a view of the Play Tent that was the 2nd grade class project in 2008.

Behind the play tent you can see part of the silent auction, which wraps around the entire ballroom at the Q Center.

Status update on Auction activities - Procurement

The Auction committee has been busy already. We hope you'll consider getting involved in one of these ways, or looking for other ways to get involved through the roles and responsibilities document, found on the main Da Vinci Academy auction page on dvacademy.org.

Procurement
Procurement is our biggest to-do for the coming weeks. Auction items are procured through a combination of direct mail, face-to-face, and phone conversations with businesses both local and far afield. Every family can help with procurement by working within their own personal networks to find goods or services to donate. Have a family member with a vacation cottage who wouldn't mind donating a weekend or a week? Have seasons' tickets to a Chicago-area venue that you could spare a set of? How about the friend who works in the PR department for a sports team? Signed jerseys, tickets to sporting events, or special "behind the scenes" tours are big draws for the auction. Do you or someone in your social circle have an interesting job? Volunteer to take a small group of students through! One popular item from previous years' auctions is an insider tour of a firehouse, courtesy of an uncle of a Da Vinci student.

In addition to procuring through personal connections, we also solicit businesses by letter and in person. Please consider coming to an upcoming procurement meeting and/or getting in touch with Michelle Milo, Auction chair to get up to speed on what to do. Many volunteers find they can keep procurement letters with them in their car and bring them in on their everyday errands.

One benefit of this year's new Auction Blog is that it gives us another avenue to promote the businesses who donate goods or services to the auction. We will aim to list all businesses here as donations come in, and include links to business websites when available.

Additionally, we also sell advertising space in the auction catalog, which is given to all auction attendees. This can be another great way for local businesses to promote their brand.

Class Projects
Anita Swartwood will be coordinating the class projects for this year's auction. The class projects are a fun way for the kids to get involved with the event. Class projects from previous years have generated substantial funds for the school and include things such as a play tent, a hand-crafted chess set, large-scale collage and composite artwork, painted chairs, and many other wonderful pieces. Over the coming days and weeks we'll look to add photos of previous auction class projects so you can appreciate the scale and effort that goes into them, both on the part of the students and on the part of the volunteers who coordinate the work and the classroom teachers who help complete the projects.

Golden Ticket
This is a raffle of big-ticket items such as an iMac computer or flat-screen television. Tickets can be sold to friends and family, the winner does not need to be present at the auction to win (though we'd hope they'd consider attending!) In the coming week or two the items for the Golden Ticket raffle need to be finalized and purchased. We're still looking for committee members for the Golden Ticket committee. People who helped with it last year will be involved again to assist, but it'd be helpful to have another few volunteers.

Auctioneer
We are on the hunt for an auctioneer, the ones we have contacted thus far this year have previous engagements. If you know of anyone, please contact Michelle Milo or post a comment to this blog.