Some children want to grow up to be ballerinas or astronauts, maybe a firefighter or a zookeeper, but then life takes a different path and the dream floats away. There’s one night of the year when the young at heart are celebrated and an important Vineyard institution benefits, a night when dreams are no longer deferred.
That night is Monday evening, when Martha’s Vineyard Community services hosts the 33rd annual Possible Dreams Auction.
More than 50 dreams will be up for bidding when nearly 1,000 Vineyarders gather under the tent at Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs. The auction benefits Community Services programs that serve more than 6,000 people, 40 per cent of whom are year-round residents. Programs such as the Island Counseling Center, disability services and Early Childhood Programs all benefit from the money raised at this event.
The tent opens to the public at 4 p.m.; bidding begins at 5 p.m. Tickets are $25.
“We have something for everyone, between dreams for sports fans, arts dreams, kids’ dreams, adventure dreams and celebrity dreams,” auction cochairman DiAnn Ray said this week. “People should expect fun and excitement.”
The auction welcomes new masters of ceremony and an auctioneer this year. Professional auctioneer Dan Flynn will take care of the numbers while WMVY radio host Laurel Redington and Plum TV host Alex Friedman will move the evening along with humor and spirit, all while tipping a hat to veteran auction leader, the late Art Buchwald.
“I’m more than anything honored and excited,” Mr. Friedman said yesterday. “If they asked me to help with place settings I would have done it. It’s a wonderful, exciting event. Even in the crazy time of year there’s a reason this one stands out and we want to build upon that.”
Another change this year is the way bids will be placed — auction paddles will be used for the first time.
For music lovers, especially JT lovers, a dinner for six will be hosted by James Taylor at his Tanglewood home in the Berkshires, followed by a performance by Mr. Taylor at the Koussevitzky Music Shed and a tour of the historic grounds. There’s also a chance to see Merrily We Roll Along in New York city with Pulitzer Prize winner and Sondheim collaborator James Lapine with dinner at Rao’s.
Travel lovers should have their paddles at the ready for a three-night stay in Napa Valley with tours of four Napa wineries followed by an 11-course dinner for two at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry. For those itching to get out of the country, how about a one-week stay at a villa on Lake Como in Italy or a tour of secret prehistoric caves outside of Paris with archaeologist Duncan Caldwell?
Adventurers get ready for some high-flying sights — dreamers can be a copilot in a fighter jet based out of Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford or fly from John Wayne Airport in Los Angeles and land on the deck of the USS Kennedy in the South Pacific for a two-day stay in private quarters.
“It’s the scope of it, that we really are the granddaddy of celebrity auctions, it’s an experience,” Mrs. Ray said. “The door price is still twenty-five dollars so anybody can come and you never know what’s going to happen. There’s no way of knowing who’s going to be in the tent and who’s going to respond to it,” she said, adding:
“It’s really important to remember that not only does Community Services serve the community but the community gives back and understand the demands being met.”
One person who continuously gives back to the community is children’s author and Arthur creator Marc Brown. He will be honored at the auction this year for raising more than $200,000 from his dreams over the past 20 years.
Mr. Brown had his own dream as a child. He watched his father go to work every morning on the railroad not because he wanted to but because he had to. Mr. Brown decided at the age of five when he grew up he wanted a job he loved.
Thirty-five years after writing the first Arthur story, Mr. Brown said he’s the happiest he’s ever been.
“Every morning when I go out to the barn there and work upstairs I feel so lucky that I get to do what I love to do,” Mr. Brown said this week, sitting outside his Vineyard Haven studio.
Mr. Brown is contributing an extra special dream on Monday night. Arthur and Mr. Brown will travel at their expense to any school or library in the country during the upcoming school year.
“I want to share my love for what I do with kids and hopefully leave a lot of good feelings behind and get them energized about writing their own stories or illustrating them,” he said. “I love to connect with kids and I don’t get to do that enough.”
Arthur has taken Mr. Brown on countless adventures, including meeting four U.S. presidents and working with Barbara and Laura Bush on various literacy initiatives. But before Arthur went green, as he did in the latest installment, he began as a bedtime story for Mr. Brown’s son.
“My son asked for a story about a weird animal and the aardvark popped out and then he wanted to know his name, so Arthur came to mind and then he wanted to know what he looked like, so I drew a little picture,” Mr. Brown recalled. “Who knew all of this was going to happen?”
There are now 65 million books in print and a longstanding television series on PBS. The television show was a game-changer for Arthur, Mr. Brown said. Stories began to become more complex and richer, Arthur became a real person (or animal) for children, and it gave Mr. Brown the opportunity to expand the aardvark’s world.
He also had help from one of his PBS neighbors.
“I had a wonderful teacher in Fred Rogers who really was a master in using television to be helpful to kids,” Mr. Brown said. “My goal was let’s entertain kids, but let’s also be helpful to them. I mean, who else is going to do a fun show about head lice? There aren’t many people out there wanting to do that and there aren’t many writers who can do it well.”
Other favorite storytelling themes include taking scary teachers and making them less so for children. Mr. Brown recalled a terrifying algebra teacher who provided inspiration for one of Arthur’s teachers, Mr. Ratburn.
Mr. Brown said he considers Community Services a vital lifeline for the year-round community.
“The Possible Dreams Auction is a way to really help out people who are here year round and to give something back,” Mr. Brown said. “But I like to focus on this one little spectrum within this beautiful rainbow that they offer the Island and that is what they give to families and children . . . they really help a lot of people who need that help in order to be productive and take care of their families. So, that’s where I like to think Arthur and I are going with whatever we contribute.”
The Possible Dreams Auction is Monday at 4 p.m. in Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs; bidding begins at 5 p.m. For tickets and more information on the dreams for sale, visit mvcommunityservices.com.
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