In a final tally of their summer fund-raising effort that begins with Possible Dreams but knows no bounds, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services brought in $465,000.
DiAnn Ray, co-chairman of this year’s Possible Dreams auction, said: “We are very pleased. In the past, we had fewer streams of revenue, but now we have funds coming in from lots of places.”
When organizers added up advertising revenue, as well as the money that came in from the dinner following the auction, the raffle, refreshments, and contributions made to the organization, another $254,000 was added to what had been made at the auction alone.
And a wrinkle over one of the big-ticket items was ironed out. Two different bidders paid $25,000 for the chance to land on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy. As it turned out, the ship had been decommissioned in 2007 and currently rests in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. The building of a new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, also named after President John F. Kennedy, was announced in late May of this year, but the ship will not be completed for several years.
But the dream remains valid, although the landing will not take place on board the USS JFK. The dream’s donor had given a similar auction item to a different organizations in the past, and assumed that the landing would take place on board the JFK, as had previously happened, unaware that the ship had been decommissioned several years ago.
“I blew it, and I feel terrible. It has nothing to do with the auction or Community Services. It’s not like I was taking the money and running,” said the donor, who did not want to be identified. “I didn’t mean to cause such a terrible disruption for Community Services, and my heart goes out to the kids they take care of, and God bless them.”
While the confusion did cause some consternation among board members for Community Services, at the end of the day, the money has been donated, and the dream will soon be realized.
“I called the two winners, though I was only able to reach one of them,” the donor said. “He said, fine, no problem. An aircraft carrier is still an aircraft carrier.”
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