What kinds of things do you donate to family reunion fundraisers?
My family has had reunions every 4 years, since 1990. One of the highlights is The Auction. My BIL has been the auctioneer for the last 4 reunions, and he is freaking hilarious!. He had spent the whole year, prior to the last reunion, growing out a real handlebar mustache especially for the job.
They used to insist that donations needed to be Texas themed, or at least representative of your state.
I kind of blew that off this year and donated a large, heavy, vintage brass nut cracker that was shaped like a walnut. I paid $15 for it at an auction.
When my BIL asked what it was I told him it was a “man controller.” He opened it up to reveal a set of nasty looking “teeth,” and said, “Oh. My. God!” It was a rollicking good time after that! Women were bidding left and right. Then a man bid and my BIL says, “Are you out of your mind??” and snapped the thing like alligator jaws. We were rolling on the floor!
Anyway, it ended up fetching the 2nd highest price of anything there, like $85. People were fighting over it because they recognized that it actually had some value.
As an aside, this is my goofy husband. He went outside and was bidding through the window!
My husband’s family has reunions every year. People donate to a raffle. They want the donations be “Greek themed.” I hadn’t been thinking about it ahead of time this year, and didn’t have anything special, so I just donated some washable paint that I had just bought a few days earlier, and stashed in the RV, for my grandkids. (I figured I could strip them down and turn them loose on the shower walls of the RV!) It was the first thing to go.
If you attend reunions, and they have fund raisers, what kind of things do you donate?
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I have never heard of an auction/fundraiser at a family reunion. Thanks for the story!
Well, it makes sense. It costs a LOT of money to put those things together. People should be reimbursed, even make a profit, even, for all the work. But they probably don’t.
Well, I guess a cattle prod would go well with your nutcracker.
We meet once a year at my mom’s cousin’s house (this is my great-grandma’s family… so there are people who go who I really don’t know at all). Each family kicks in a few bucks and brings a dish to pass… so I don’t really know what kind of family reunion you’re talking about that costs a LOT of money. I’m guessing you stay at a hotel and spend the weekend together??? I’ve never been to anything like that.
My grandparents family (so my aunts/uncles/cousins) get together 1–2 times a year. The older generation (my parents/aunts/uncles) pay some for their family (a little more when we have a clambake… and then they only pay more per person who eats clams). Again, a potluck at someone’s house.
Rick has his at Twin Bridges state park, in Oklahoma. We probably travel the furthest, about 3 hours. There is the pavilion to rent. They also provide fried chicken from Chicken Annies, along with baked beans and mac and cheese from Chicken Annies.. It’s probably an outlay of $700 or more. Not a huge sum, but big enough that they should be reimbursed.
It’s also a potluck.
My family, OTOH, comes from all over the US. There is a banquet room to rent, and a menu to work up. They reserve blocks of hotel rooms. Everybody pays for their own rooms, and for the meals, but behind it all is 4 years worth of planning. There are out of pocket expenses that I don’t even know about, because I have yet to be on the planning committee.
There are so many people at each one, almost as many at Ricks, that a normal sized house couldn’t begin to hold them all!
While I no longer attend them my mom’s family has one every year. They’re always held at a particular state park, and while there may be some expenses, I think the suggestion that one should be reimbursed or even make a profit from it would be enough to get one exiled from future reunions.
No one suggests making a profit, @Darth_Algar. That is my own personal opinion.
Now, why should a person not be reimbursed if they spent $700 on food for 100 people?
Because I would think that a family reunion would be something held without the idea of remuneration. Who the hell spends $700 on food for a family reunion anyway? That’s absurd. Generally these things have a lot of people bringing along dishes they’ve made (and made without the expectation of reimbursement), and thus no one person is out more than a few dollars really.
As I said, at Rick’s reunions the main meal, the chicken, baked beans and mac and cheese is provided at every reunion. It’s paid for in advance. It’s easy to spend $700 on food for 100 people in a situation like that. That’s only $7.00 a person. People do pay for their own meals at the back end, but if, for whatever reason, they overestimate the number of people coming, or people cancel at the last minute, then someone is out the money they paid for in advance for their meals. That is probably where the biggest out of pocket expense comes in for the planners. At Rick’s reunion we also bring own own side dishes.
Same thing if they buy Tshirts. X number of people say they want one, but not every one actually takes, and pays for one so someone is stuck with that bill.
There are a lot of other things that goes in to an event like that, especially in the case of my family when we meet only every 4 years. We don’t do any potluck with those dinners. They are always in large meeting room and the food is catered. I can imagine it gets pretty expensive for the planners in a lot of different ways, and they aren’t paid back 100%, hence the fund raiser.
I certainly don’t mind the fund raisers. They’re fun. In my family, it’s the highlight of the day! Absolutely no one complains about them.
Gosh, at one of my family reunions, during the auction. Rick ended up with my 8 year grandson, Blake, to one side of the large room, and I had his 11 year old brother, Ryan, with me, in the middle of the room.
My BIL holds up 2 suckers, that had a scorpion in each one. Started the bidding. Ryan really, really wanted those suckers so I went for it. Then I realized someone else was bidding immediately behind me. When it hit $8.00 I realized IT WAS MY FREAKING HUSBAND!! Oh, the battle was on! At first Rick didn’t realize I was his competition and I was not going to lose! Then he realized that I WAS his competition and he was not going to lose!
I yelled, to my BIL, “THAT’S MY HUSBAND AND THE BOYS ARE BROTHERS AND YOU KNOW IT!!!” and I went up to whack him on the head with a paper fan that the planners provided for the auction. He was ducking and jumping and running AND STILL TAKING BIDS FROM MY HUSBAND!!!
I continued to bid as I was chasing him.
Then I turned on my husband, who was toward the back of the room, and advanced on him with my fan. His eyes got really big and he got one of his famous fake panic looks on his face…but still kept bidding.
He hit $33. $33 freaking dollars for $4.00 worth of suckers with scorpions in them!!!
I said, “Don’t you say another. single. world.” Then I said, ”$33.25.”
He said another single word.
The bidding stopped at $35. It was insanely hilarious. People were just rolling!!
Of course, it was easy enough to simply let the other have the last bid, then give each kid a sucker, but there was a PRINCIPLE involved!...Not sure what it was, though.
Man, that was fun.
Sounds more like a convention that any family reunion I’ve ever seen. Not saying it’s right or wrong or anything, just way outside my (and, I suspect, many others) experience with family reunions.
Oh well. Sounds like you’re used to more casual get togethers, maybe spontaneous gatherings, of just a few people.
Not really spontaneous, I mean they next one is in the planning as soon as one finishes, there’s just not a big thing made out of them. As for size…eh, generally around 75 to 100 usually.
Is it at someone’s house? Edit. You said they have them at a state park. Why don’t you go to them anymore?
Well for starters I no longer live in that area, I now live several hundred miles away. Also blood relations, in themselves, have never meant that much to me (ie: the clan i build for myself is more meaningful than the one I was born into). And now with pretty much everyone from that side who I did care about (including my mom) now dead I see no reason to make the trek for that.
We probably have about 70 people too. It’s on the same day every year (the last Saturday or Sunday of whatever… my mom always tells me the week before). It’s nearby at a family member’s house… which is huge. We don’t really use the house, just the finished garage (which has an extra kitchen in it) and the yard/pool. Most of my cousins don’t go; it’s more my mom’s cousins and their families. I don’t know many of the people and don’t go out of my way to attend.
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