When Seth Meyers steps up to host the 43rd annual Possible Dreams Auction late Sunday afternoon, he will share duties with professional auctioneer Sherry Truhlar. He thinks he has the easy job.
“It’s a very hard job to be a professional auctioneer, and it’s a very easy job standing next to that auctioneer, throwing zingers,” the comedian told the Gazette by phone this week. The pair will take the stage at Tilton Farm in West Tisbury beginning at 5 p.m. Sunday to raise money for Martha’s Vineyard Community Services. The event is a hybrid affair this year due to the ongoing pandemic, with in-person attendance limited primarily to sponsors, dream donors and a group of Island essential workers that will be honored, Community Services communications manager Mary Korba said.
It will also be live-streamed, free and open to the public. (Links are posted on the Community Services website.)
There are 33 dreams up for auction this year. Online bidding for 24 of the dreams opens at 9 a.m. Friday and closes at 9 p.m. Tuesday. Bidding for nine signature Dreams of Summer opens at 3 p.m. on Sunday and closes out during the event.
The slew of dreams up for auction include an environmental cruise aboard the schooner Charlotte with John Kerry, Mary Steenburgen, Ted Danson, Liz Witham, Ken Wentworth and Nat and Pam Benjamin; a trip with Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. on the schooner Tree of Life to discuss his new series, The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song; a shopping spree and design session with Vineyard Vines co-founders Shep and Ian Murray; and tickets to a taping of Late Night with Seth Meyers along with a meet-and-greet with Mr. Meyers himself.
“Fair market value for four tickets to see Late Night with Seth Meyers is priceless,” Mr. Meyers joked.
But it’s all for a vital Island cause he said, turning serious.
“One thing I have heard a lot this past 18 months is how many people use the Island in a way they’ve never used before as a sanctuary, as a safe place to be, and also how Community Services was called on in a way that they’d never been called on,” Mr. Meyers said.
“Obviously, I feel a great amount of gratitude for [the] incredible hard work [of Community Services],” he added. “This will be so easy for me compared to what they went through.”
Mr. Meyers has been a seasonal resident of the Vineyard for 13 years with his wife Alexi Ashe. More recently, he said he has rediscovered the magic of the Island with their children.
“I’m lucky enough to have two young boys who have been blessed with this incredible Island, and their joy and excitement about being there and taking advantage of all the wonders of the Island has been a fun thing to see through their eyes,” he said.
It was partly this deep appreciation for the Vineyard and its people that motivated Mr. Meyers to help Community Services, the unique umbrella agency that provides an array of social services through its mental health, early childhood, domestic violence prevention and other programs.
The Possible Dreams auction is the single biggest fundraiser for Community Services.
“We have programs . . . that operate at a deficit each year. We really depend on philanthropic dollars to survive,” Ms. Korba said.
Meanwhile, for fans who may not be able to attend in person this year, Mr. Meyers indicated he will be back.
After hosting the Dreams as a fully virtual event last year, he said he sees this year’s hybrid event as a middle step.
“This is act two of a three-act play,” he said. “A summer from now where it’s just shaming people into opening up those wallets . . . I’m really, really limbering up for a year from now.”
To register to bid or join the live stream auction Sunday, go to https://www.mvcommunityservices.org/.
Comments (1)
Comments
Comment policy »