DO I HEAR 20? — Auctioneer Tracy Holland, left, seeks bids as Corey Johnson displays a wooden rocking horse at the Benefit for Dana March 22 at NRHEG Elementary School in Ellendale. More 1,100 people attended. (Star Eagle photo by Kathy Paulsen)
By KATHY PAULSEN
Staff Writer
Sometimes, like Woodstock, an event takes on a life of its own.
The benefit for Dana on Sunday, March 22 turned out to be such an event.
It started out as a few members of the Zion Lutheran Church wanting to raise funds to help Dana Standke and her family, Shelly Standke and Dan Enzenauer. But it became a huge rally attended by over 1,100 people.
It was inspiring to see the number of people who turned out to support Dana. It was also great to see the large number of items donated for the bake sale, silent auction, live auction, and meat raffle. The Easter Bunny came too, and many of the children had their pictures taken with the bunny.
Things went smoothly that day, considering the number of people in attendance and the number of different activities. People donated their time and talents in many ways.
Shelly Standke and Cindi Bartness designed "TEAM DANA" T-shirts. The shirts were bright yellow and had "Team DANA" printed on the front, and a black cat and cat footprints on the back, because Dana likes cats, with her name used to stand for “Daring, Adventurous, Non-stop, Attitude.”
Each of the over 60 volunteers wore their "TEAM DANA" T-shirts during the benefit, which allowed people to quickly find them. Dana's family also sported T-shirts; theirs were purple.
The committee was fortunate to be able to hold the benefit at NRHEG Elementary School in Ellendale, which provided them the space needed to accommodate the large number of supporters and many great donations that were given. Many teachers and classmates were in attendance.
Breakfast was prepared in the school cafeteria and people sat in the lunchroom to enjoy pancakes, French toast, sausage, coffee cake, milk, juice and coffee.
After breakfast everyone moved to the gymnasium, where they could walk along the eight tables holding all the donated baked goods. They could also browse the large number of tables containing over 200 silent auction items. People were also able to purchase tickets for a meat raffle, as well as sit and visit. Some periodically got up to check on their silent auction bids, others waited until the live auction got underway.
The live auction started at 1:00, and concluded about 2:30. Approximately 72 auction items were displayed on the stage area and the floor in front of the stage.
Tracy Holland served as auctioneer and began by announcing, "We are going to raise a little money for Dana this afternoon.”
Bartness clerked, and Rick Johnson, Waylon Busho, Rick Thompson, Tony Seykora, Rene Beauchamp and Corey Johnson watched the crowd for bids, and held up items for bidding.
The first item up for bid was a "Life Began In A Garden" decorative door. Next up was a collection of bird houses with old license plates for roofs. There was a large number of framed pictures, and a number of signed wildlife prints by Jim Hensel.
There were also many handmade wood items, including rockers, high chairs, three rocking horses, a rocking car, a wood bunk bed for dolls and a wood wheelbarrow, many of which had been made and donated by Ryan "Junior" Johnson.
Winfred Bergdale donated an oak chest, and there were two bean bag game sets, one decorated with the Minnesota Twins and the other with John Deere.
There were also a decorative steel wheel frame with flowers, a bicycle wheel wreath with flowers, a shovel with flowers attached, and another shovel with a large wooden flower at the top. The flower decorations reminded everyone that spring was here.
A metal pedal tractor went up for bid, and a metal flag made using actual horseshoes. Some of the horseshoes were painted red and white and others were blue, to represent the stars and stripes.
Rick and Becky Johnson made and donated a decorative Garden Center created using an old door. (The door was from an old school house; someone thought it may have been from the Wilker school.) There were a number of different tool sets too, including pry bars.
The auction also had a number of home canned items, including Sue Hill’s famous dill pickles, some of which sold for $60 per jar, and a great collection of homemade pies, including apple, peach and pecan.
The auction also included a set of large wood lawn chairs and table, and an orange Harley Davdison set. Dan Bell had also made a metal chair/bench for two. There was a decorative windmill, still in the box, and even a few Christmas items, including a wooden snowman with skis.
There were decorative lamps, including one with a set of deer antlers forming the base and another with stained glass. There were also decorative bird baths, one donated by Rhonda Hareid. Rhonda also donated a decorative flower box with a mirror.
There were a number of quilts, king size on down, as well as afghans and baskets.
Also included on the auction was a red rollcart wagon, and a pink wagon with sideboards.
For sports items, there was a signed basketball with a #33 (Carlie Wagner) cap, and a picture of the Minnesota Gophers women’s basketball team also with a #33 cap, from Wagner’s family. There was also a Corderrelle Peterson football and two large Panther athletic pictures, and Minnesota Twins tickets, including one set that may give the ticketholder the opportunity to go out on the field.
Among the farm items, there was a weed eater, a large Allis-Chalmers picture, bags of seed corn and beans, and an International Harvester swivel stool.
In addition to the meat raffles held prior to the auction, a whole hog was donated by Geneva Meats. The day also provided a large number of gift certificates to bid on, including some for tickets to Wisconsin Dells, NASCAR, and a water park.
Dana, whose first concern after her accident was if her dad would be mad, has undergone four surgeries since November. She is still bothered with phantom pain in her arm, but is learning ways to deal with it. Her mother, Shelly, said the accident, and the many things she has had to face since then, hasn't seemed to have slowed Dana down.
KAAL was one of three television stations covering the event.
One of the questions the news commentator asked Dana was how she was adjusting to once again have a functioning right arm. Dana said she has been having problems being able to put on her socks, but she is very pleased to have two arms functioning again. Dana was able to get her new arm on March 5, just four months after her accident. The artificial arm has the appearance of it having tattoos, as it is painted with several wildlife scenes.
KAAL News called the event “a triumph for the community.” The whole town packed the school on Sunday, March 22, which was great for Dana and her family.
The bravery and positive attitude of this young lady has been outstanding, and the people who supported her during the benefit were outstanding as well.