Auction site at the Belknap Marketplace in Belmont

LACONIA—The 44th annual Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction will be presented by Hannaford Supermarkets from Tuesday, Dec. 9 to Friday, Dec. 12, live at the Belknap Marketplace in Belmont. 

The auction airs daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Each day will offer items up for bid, on-air fun and appearances from friends and neighbors throughout the community. On Friday, Dec. 12, auction volunteers will come together to announce the total funds raised for children and families in need. 

“Don’t miss it,” said Jennifer Kelley, executive director of the organization. 

Kelley thanked the Massachusetts-based Vernet Properties, which owns the marketplace, and other business leaders throughout the Lakes Region who continue to show their generosity to the auction as it raises funds to support local, low-income children and families. 

Can’t make it in person? There are so many ways to enjoy the Children’s Auction and bid on fantastic items for your family and friends. Viewers can tune into Channel 25 or stream at ChildrensAuction.org, laconiadailysun.com or Facebook.com/ChildrensAuction. Listen with Zack Derby and friends at Lakes 101.5 FM.

The auction is also seeking new, unused, non-perishable items, big and small. Gifts cards are always a hit with bidders. Other popular items include electronics, tools, tickets to sporting events, toys, services—you name it, we need it! Convenient item collection sites are now open throughout our region, including Alton, Ashland, Belmont, Bristol, Center Harbor, Franklin, Gilford, Laconia, Meredith, Moultonborough, Plymouth and Tilton. Visit ChildrensAuction.org for details. 

And on Black Friday, Nov. 28, visit our collection site at the Belknap Marketplace and drop your items off between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. On Saturday, Nov. 29 and Sunday, Nov. 30, items can be dropped there from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. We will also be accepting items the weekend before the auction week right at The Marketplace from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Stop by and see us in person!

Bid online at ChildrensAuction.org, or over the phone during Auction week at 603-527-0999. 

Pre-bidding begins on Black Friday, Nov. 28, on items with a retail value of $300 and more. 

If you’re a business owner and have always wanted to get involved with the Children’s Auction, it’s not too late to become a sponsor. Sponsorship opportunities exist at every level. Email us at Jenn@ChildrensAuction.org or call 603-527-0999 for more information on how your business can make a difference in the lives of children. 

Follow the auction on social media at Facebook.com/ChildrensAuction, Instagram.com/childrensauction603/ and Linkedin.com/company/greater-lakes-region-children-s-auction/.

About the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction:

Numerous fundraising events in the Lakes Region throughout the year support the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction, including our four-day signature event every December. In the past four decades we have distributed more than $9.2 million to over 80 nonprofits that serve low-income families and children in the Lakes Region, all through volunteer efforts, community donations and corporate sponsorship. The Auction falls under the umbrella of the Greater Lakes Region Charitable Fund for Children, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps local community organizations that serve children and families in need. For more information about the Auction, the nonprofits it supports and how you can help, visit ChildrensAuction.org.

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LACONIA —As the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction gears into its busy season in preparation for the 2023 auction to be held at the Belknap Marketplace and online, Tuesday, Dec. 5 through Friday, Dec. 8, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., its leaders are still seeking sponsors.

View sponsorship options at childrensauction.org/sponsorship. To get involved as a sponsor or donate items, email Jenn@ChildrensAuction.org or call 603-527-0999. 

Sponsorships help raise awareness for an organization. For instance, those who sponsor a day of the auction are featured the entire day, with the organization logo visible to bidders and community members. The organization is also featured on air and on the digital screen that appears in the broadcast and streaming.

“The Children’s Auction would not be successful without our sponsors, and the beauty of sponsorship is that it’s a win-win for businesses. They get to raise awareness about their organizations while also helping children and families in need in our communities,” said Jennifer Kelley, executive director for the auction.

Kelley also thanked these area sponsors who have already come forward. 

Hannaford is the event’s Presenting Sponsor and MB Tractor the OverBid Sponsor for the Week. 

Other sponsors include: Bank of New Hampshire, Bonnette, Page & Stone, Children’s Dentistry, Dairy Queen, EPTAM, Gilford Hills Tennis and Fitness, Granite State Glass, Hi Gloss Boat Restoration, Irwin Marine, Juggernaut Fitness, Laconia Harley Davidson, Meredith Insurance Agency, Meredith Village Savings Bank, Pike Industries, Sawyer’s Dairy Bar, The Edge, and The Xavier Group.

Media Partners are Breezeline, Lakes FM 101.5, Lakes Region Public Access, SnapRoot Creative Digital Marketing and The Laconia Daily Sun. And in-kind partners are Belknap Marketplace, Belmont Self Storage, SOS Tech, Huot Career and Technical Center, and Taylor Rental.

Viewers can bid online at ChildrensAuction.org. The event will be streamed live on the auction website and at LaconiaDailySun.com and Facebook.com/ChildrensAuction. Watch live on Breezeline Channel 12 and Lakes Region Public Access TV Channel 25, or listen on Lakes FM 101.5.

Learn more about the Auction at ChildrensAuction.org.

About the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction:

Numerous fundraising events in the Lakes Region throughout the year support the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction, including our four-day signature event every December. In the past four decades we have distributed more than $8 million to over 80 nonprofits that serve low-income families and children in the Lakes Region, all through volunteer efforts, community donations and corporate sponsorship. The Auction falls under the umbrella of the Greater Lakes Region Charitable Fund for Children, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps local community organizations that serve children and families in need. For more information about the Auction, the nonprofits it supports and how you can help, visit ChildrensAuction.org.

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For several years now, I have been writing for the Laconia Daily Sun in Laconia, New Hampshire. I very much enjoy returning to my journalism roots for these assignments and writing for a daily paper that is well-respected in the community. As a relatively new resident of the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, I am also enjoying the chance to meet new people.

This is a story about a little girl with a rare genetic disorder whose parents are fundraising in hopes there will one day be a treatment they can afford. Read it here.

The post Hope for Livi: One family’s commitment to raising awareness, preparing for eventual treatment appeared first on Beetle Press.

For several years now, I have been writing for the Laconia Daily Sun in Laconia, New Hampshire. I very much enjoy returning to my journalism roots for these assignments and writing for a daily paper that is well-respected in the community. As a relatively new resident of the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, I am also enjoying the chance to meet new people.

This is a story about Beans & Greens Farm helping staff and customers by staying open year-round. Read it here.

This is a sidebar about the Easter bunny visiting Beans & Greens Farm. Read it here.

The post Staying open year-round has helped Beans & Greens farm retain staff appeared first on Beetle Press.

Courtesy photo

For several years now, I have been writing for the Laconia Daily Sun in Laconia, New Hampshire. I very much enjoy returning to my journalism roots for these assignments and writing for a daily paper that is well-respected in the community. As a relatively new resident of the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, I am also enjoying the chance to meet new people.

This is a story about four social activists and their extraordinary efforts to help children suffering in Ukraine. You can read it here.

The post Benefit concert one step in reaching $10M fundraising goal for Ukraine appeared first on Beetle Press.

An Evening of Broadway to be held on August 17 at the Colonial Theatre Laconia

LACONIA —The Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction will hold its first theater fundraising event, An Evening of Broadway, on Wednesday, August 17 at 7 p.m. at the Colonial Theatre Laconia.

The event is family-friendly, and tickets range from $20-$30. Individuals are also invited to sponsor a seat for $20 per child to allow children from the Boys and Girls Club to attend at no cost. All donations are tax deductible.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased online at coloniallaconia.com or in person at the box office at 609 Main St., Laconia, Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“We are very excited to be collaborating with local community theater groups to create this fundraising event,” stated Jennifer Kelley, the Auction’s executive director. “Our area is robust with talent, and we are eager to showcase it. We are also thrilled to give kids in need the ability to attend the show at no cost with our Sponsor a Seat initiative.” 

The show will offer musical performances of all ages from local community theater groups, including Franklin Footlight Theatre, One Light Theatre, Pittsfield Players, Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative, and Streetcar Company. This event is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Bank of New Hampshire and MB Tractor.

Jessica Alward, a longtime community theater performer, said, “The Children’s Auction makes a significant impact for low-income kids in the area. Many children have had the chance to participate in theater only because of the Auction. We are thrilled to be able to give just a little bit back through this event. There will be at least five local community theaters represented in the show and all those talented Lakes Region performers will have the chance to share one big stage!” 

The mission of the Children’s Auction is to engage the community to financially support children in need with a vision to ensure that every child is empowered to succeed and positively impact a thriving Greater Lakes Region community. 

Over the past 40 years, the Auction has distributed $7.5 million to local nonprofits that serve people living with low to moderate incomes.

For more information on the Auction or the performance, contact Kelley at Jenn@ChildrensAuction.com or call 603-527-0999.

Learn more about the Auction at ChildrensAuction.com.

About the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction:

The Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction is a charitable event held every December in central New Hampshire. Countless volunteers and donors have turned the Auction and its many fundraising events, including the It’s For the Kids Community Challenge, into a major annual campaign. In the 40 years that the community has come together for the Auction, an impressive $7.5 million has been awarded to local nonprofit organizations, all through volunteer efforts, community donations, and corporate sponsorship. The Greater Lakes Region Charitable Fund for Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps community organizations in the Central New Hampshire region. For more information about the Auction, the nonprofits it supports, and how you can help, visit ChildrensAuction.com.

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Note: I build relationships with writers and editors of local newspapers in part by writing for them on a freelance basis. For several years, I have been writing stories for the editors of the Laconia Daily Sun in Laconia, New Hampshire. This piece highlights the shortage of dock space this summer—a problem created by a boating boon after COVID-19; it ran in mid-August.

As businesspeople, Andrea Harper and her husband, Jerry Harper Jr., know to pay attention to shifts and trends in the community. They’re good listeners, and their skills paid off again last year as they got wind of a shortage of boat slips in the Lakes Region.

Jerry runs Ledgefarm Station LLC, an auto and marine repair business in Meredith for over 20 years, and as boat sales picked up locally, he was hearing from customers and colleagues that boat storage was not easy to come by.

“We also knew through social media,” explains Andrea, noting that she and Jerry saw cries for help on Facebook, particularly on the I Love Winnipesaukee and I Boat Winnipesaukee pages.

“Does anyone know of any available slips?” the posts were apt to say.

“There was definitely a need,” Andrea Harper says. “We knew we could provide storage and that would help these people who can’t find slips and docks.”

To meet the demand, the Harpers founded Jenness Hill Auto and Marine Storage LLC in Meredith—with Andrea wearing the hats of co-owner and office manager. Since the business opened in September 2020, the Harpers have been offering both summer and winter storage of cars, boats, personal watercraft, motorcycles, and even a few bob houses.

They’ve got roughly 100 vehicles on the first floor of their 20,000-square-foot space and room for 100 motorcycles and 100 personal watercraft on the second floor. They also have space outside the building, and they are providing overflow storage for 60 boats from four area marinas.

“We have capacity for another 200 for outside winter storage,” Harper says.

Boaters swing over whenever they want to go out on the water. They put their boat and trailer on the back of a vehicle and drive to a launch; the closest one to Jenness Hill is in Meredith.

“It’s a cost-effective solution,” says Harper.

Other inventive measures

In addition to storing boats that owners can pick up, tow away, and launch, several dozen marinas on the water also offer what’s called valet boat storage—and they started providing the service long before the pandemic rocked the boating industry.

Boaters pay a fee to leave their watercraft in storage near the shore; boats are not on trailers but instead the hulls are stacked on supports, or racks. When boat owners want to head out on the water, they call ahead.

“They call an hour in advance, and we have the boat in the water when they arrive,” said Bill Irwin, owner of Irwin Marine. “They use their boat. They bring it back, and we pull it out and put it back on the rack.”

Irwin adds, “We’ve done this for many years. I think people are happy. It’s a way for people who don’t need a full boat slip and just want to use it for the day.”

In addition to the benefit of simply having a place to store your boat—without worrying about getting it from land to water—Irwin said other positives are that valet service keeps the boat’s hull cleaner, and there are no hassles that crop up in transportation.

Watching the forklift

Moving a boat from land to sea sans trailer is not for the faint of heart.

If you hang around a busy marina like Irwin long enough on a summer day, you’ll have the chance to watch a boat make the short journey from the storage unit into the water, and it’s a pretty neat feat.

A sturdy truck with forks—or tines—that are several dozen feet long, pulls up to the storage unit and lines itself up with the boat to be moved. Very gently, the truck’s driver slips the tines under the boat.

Some boats are stored on second- and third-floor spaces, and when that’s the case, the tines lift up to the boat’s height, and then the tines slide under.

When the boat’s weight is on the forklift, the truck begins a slow passage to an open dock space, and once there, the boat is slowly lowered into the water. A second marina employee, standing at the ready, ties the boat up, and poof, it’s time for an outing.

Irwin said valet service is offered at Irwin’s Laconia location from May 15 through Columbus Day each year. He preferred not to talk cost but said the service is less than having a slip.

This year, Irwin’s had about 40 boat owners using valet. “It’s another way to get your boat in the water and enjoy the lake,” Irwin adds, noting that these days, it’s difficult to find empty dock slips, and it’s also a puzzle for developers to site new ones, given a shortage of shorefront and a lot of restrictions on use.

The unaffected

Gilford Yacht Club is one marina that is unaffected by the shortage in boat slips, primarily because it’s not in the business of supplying slips to the public.

Svend Filby, who serves as treasurer and secretary of the club’s Board of Directors, has owned a boat slip there since 2009.

“We have 64 boat owners, and we have room for 64 boats to store,” he says. “We’re not a marina. We’re a club. So, it’s simple as far as that goes.”

Filby pointed toward valet boating as a simple solution for newer boat owners.

And, of course, the Harpers still have availability in Meredith.

The start of Jenness Hill

When Andrea and Jerry Harper Jr. started thinking about the boat storage problem about a year ago, Jerry was friendly with George Makris, who owned M&M Salvage for decades. Makris was ready to retire, and his 20,000-square-foot, two-story building was available.

The Harpers scooped it up and spent six weeks cleaning out 60 years’ worth of boats and marine salvage, Andrea Harper says.

Cars, motorcycles, personal watercraft, boats, and a few bob houses are now stored on the property, which is secure and monitored 24-7; Harper says only RVs are not allowed.

The cost for cars is $550 for six months on the lower level; on the storage building’s upper floor, the cost is $150 for a motorcycle for six months and $400 for personal watercraft. Outside, boat storage is $600 for winter; $500 from Memorial Day to Labor Day, or $100 per week. ATVs are $400. (Learn more at jennesshillstorage.com.)

With recent changes to parking rules in downtown Meredith that prohibit extended parking and limit time to 72 hours, boaters who live and vacation on nearby Bear Island were stuck. “We received several calls from people renting on Bear Island who now can’t park their trucks and trailers in Meredith for more than three days, and they were stuck if they were out there for a week,” Harper says.

“We offer a solution that’s only a mile from the Meredith boat launch,” she says, noting five of her Jenness Hill customers are islanders.

Harper said Jenness Hill has the capacity to store about 300 boats. “We are nowhere near max capacity at the moment, but we hope to be this winter,” she says.

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Note: I write blogs and press releases for the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction in Laconia, New Hampshire. It’s an organization that raises money year round for children and families in need. Each month, the Auction names an Auction Champion. I wrote this blog about a recent Champion, Rae Mello-Andrews and the Gilford Fire-Rescue team.

The roughly 30 members of the Gilford Fire-Rescue team have diverse skills. In 2019 alone, the crew responded to about 1,700 calls for help and rescued people who were experiencing a medical event or were lost in the woods on a mountain, in a fire in their home or car, or injured while hunting or boating.

One overarching mission gives the Gilford Fire-Rescue staff members purpose: a desire to be there for the community—on duty and off. So, when Gilford Fire-Rescue and the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction first joined forces in the Auction’s infancy, it seemed like a natural fit.

“It’s our mission to support our community,” says paramedic Rae Mello-Andrews, who works on-call for Gilford Fire-Rescue alongside her husband, Captain Rick Andrews. “We don’t get into this profession for the money. We’re here to help people. We see all walks of life first-hand, and we know just how hard hit some families are. Raising money to support the Children’s Auction is just a part of what we do and another extension of helping people.”

Rae got involved with the Auction in the late 1980s to honor a friend and colleague, the late Karen Warfield, who was a secretary at the fire station and was like family to Rae; Karen passed away following a long illness and complications from surgery. Gilford Fire-Rescue’s staff members made a $250 donation to the Children’s Auction in Karen’s name.

“We did it for a couple of years after that, and eventually the Children’s Auction organizers asked us if we might want to do a boot drive,” the Gilford resident remembers, noting the effort has grown over the years. “We followed through, originally by having people collect donations outside Walmart, then at Hannaford Supermarket, Shaw’s, and Lowe’s.”

Last year, Gilford Fire-Rescue raised nearly $6,000 for the Auction. The dozen or so staff members who participate in the boot drive on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, including Gilford Fire-Rescue Chief Steve Carrier, get into the holiday spirit by playing Christmas music, and they don’t let bad weather stop them.

“We’re out there in all kinds of conditions. Some years we froze, other years it’s been beautiful,” Rae says. “It’s a big team effort. It’s everybody.”

Community members have certainly taken note of those team members who brave the elements to support the Children’s Auction. Just last year, Rae says, a former colleague who is a nurse, was inspired to bring her teenage son to participate in the boot drive.

“She said it was a really good experience for him to see another side of what the Gilford Fire-Rescue team does,” Rae says. “It left a positive impression on him. Nothing would make us happier than if we are influencing young people in the community to do good, too.”

Though the team’s community service draws praise, supporting the Children’s Auction seems almost as natural as breathing to the Gilford Fire-Rescue staff members.

“We always see people when they’re not having their best day,” Rae explains. “We like helping people, and raising money for the Children’s Auction is another way to do that. It’s nothing for many of us to give up a family dinner or activity or an afternoon or day off to assist somebody who needs help. It’s just what we do.”

“The boot drives are a chance for the fire department to share our passion of caring for the community. We get to engage with our neighbors in a really positive way,” says Dom DeCarli, an Auction board member and a lieutenant with the Gilford Fire Department. “Seeing all of the local fire departments jump at the opportunity is not surprising, but it is still impressive. Much like the Auction itself, it’s been inspiring to see what a few people who want to give back can accomplish!”

The post Highlighting a Client’s Champions appeared first on Beetle Press.

Note: I write blogs and press releases for the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction in Laconia, New Hampshire. It’s an organization that raises money year round for children and families in need. Each month, the Auction names an Auction Champion. I wrote this blog about the June Champion, Hannaford Supermarket and Larry Poliquin, the manager of the Hannaford in Gilford.

Larry Poliquin remembers the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction before it was televised, back when bidding was relayed to the community by radio. Larry, who was assistant manager at the Franklin branch of Hannaford Supermarket at the time, tuned in early on, and immediately connected with organizers’ goal of improving the lives of local children.

So, after getting promoted to store manager at the Hannaford store in Gilford, Larry took the reins, making donations and sending teams of volunteers—himself included—to work the phone bank and help with checking out items. What began as a small effort eventually grew into Larry taking a week of vacation time to see the Children’s Auction through from beginning to end, as well as becoming a member of the Board of Directors and Disbursement Committee, which reviews all of the applications from local nonprofit organizations hoping to receive funds from the Auction.

“We work year-round, but we have a big job that week at the Auction each December,” he says. “And now, being on the Disbursement Committee, it’s amazing to see the amount of need this one organization fills. It’s great to see the number at the end of the week, and to know that money is going to help children.”

Hannaford has eagerly supported Larry and his efforts over the years. In fact, Sherri Stevens, who manages community relations for the supermarket chain, says supporting the Children’s Auction is a perfect example of Hannaford’s tagline, “Greater Than Groceries.”

“We like to think of ourselves as more than the building down the road that provides groceries,” says Sherri, a Gorham, Maine, resident. “Community is so important to us at Hannaford, and it’s clear that it’s important to our associates, too. Larry represents Hannaford so well, and we often look to leaders like him across our 182 stores in five states to help us understand where the community’s needs are the greatest and where our involvement can have the greatest impact.”

Hannaford, Sherri continues, doesn’t like to just hand organizations checks. Rather, the preference is to understand what’s going on and invest in meaningful ways, whether that’s through providing sponsorship, having volunteers step up to help, or donating items to be auctioned off.

“The fact that Larry identified the Auction as an area where we could help, and that it’s making such an impact, is so meaningful to us,” Sherri says. “We’re hugely proud of Larry and the other associates who have joined him along the way.”

Likewise, Larry, who has been with Hannaford for over 30 years, says the reason so many employees stay with the company for so long is because it supports community involvement and giving back.

“You don’t see that in many chain stores,” he says. “That’s what keeps us strong and keeps us committed to our organization, and that’s why we’re still here.”

A total of five Hannaford stores take part in making the Children’s Auction a success, with employees volunteering to work the phone bank and help with checking out items, as well as spearheading their own fundraising efforts beyond what Sherri’s marketing department provides in sponsorship dollars. One of the key people behind those fundraising efforts is Joe Gentile, manager of the Meredith store.

Though there’s certainly plenty of work involved leading up to the Children’s Auction and throughout the week itself, it also doesn’t stop once the Auction goes off the air, Larry says. Then it’s time for Larry and the other four members of the Disbursement Committee to review grant applications and present recommendations for funding to the Board of Directors. In 2019, following the 38^th Auction, a total of $600,032 was raised for area nonprofits.

“Our committee spends weeks in the winter reviewing all the grant requests and discussing the best way to distribute the money that’s available,” Larry says. “We often visit the organizations we aren’t as familiar with, so we get to see firsthand what each organization is doing to help local children.”

At the end of the day, supporting children who need it most is what the Auction is all about.

“Across Hannaford, our employees feel a particular passion when an event supports our kids,” Sherri says. “We know that to help our kids grow and learn and develop, we have to invest in them. We genuinely believe in and understand that they are our future.”

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I help the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction in New Hampshire with promoting its good work—raising money to offer support to children and families. I interview volunteers and pen blogs about their contributions over the decades. This piece is about Terry Hicks, who offered to televise the event many years ago, greatly expanding its reach.

Back in December 1998, Terry Hicks was brand new in the role of general manager for MetroCast in Laconia. He was also a brand-new resident of the Lakes Region. When he heard Warren Bailey broadcasting the Children’s Auction from his van in downtown Laconia, though, Terry acted the way a native member of the community would.

He offered to help—in a big way.

“I said, ‘I have access to television equipment if you want to broadcast this,” Terry explains, noting MetroCast donated all the equipment to Lakes Region Public Access, and, a year later, the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction was televised, in 1999.

“Warren was doing a lot of stuff for the community,” Terry adds. “It just caught me that maybe this is something we could do to help him expand, and he could raise more money if he had more exposure, and sure enough, it worked.”

Terry was grateful to be connected with Warren and other fellow advocates of the Auction, such as businessmen David McGreevy, who spearheaded the building of an elaborate set from which the Auction took place, and Alan McRae, who worked for the telephone company NYNEX and made it possible for the Auction to have four phones, instead of one.

“I really enjoyed the relationships that we had,” Terry says. “They brought all the excitement. There was always a discussion about whether we’d beat the last year’s number. Every year, I was there, and I think every year since, they’ve beat the prior year. It was great. It was something you looked forward to. You started planning for it in July—what the approach was going to be, who was the staff.”

Broadcasting on WLNH from an unheated van parked on North Main Street, Warren raised $2,100 in his first auction year. Over time, volunteers like Terry began to trickle in by ones and twos and then in groups. The Auction now involves thousands, many of whom give up a week’s vacation for the privilege of taking part in dozens of ways. 

In 2019, the Auction raised $600,032.

Terry, who is now retired and living in Philadelphia with his wife, Cathy, worked in cable television starting in 1972. He has lived in Colorado, Maryland, New York, and Massachusetts and has worked for American Television and Communications Corp, which became TimeWarner, in various leadership roles. 

He was on the team that built the cable system in Rochester, New York, and was in the general manager role in Laconia when MetroCast rebuilt the system there.

In terms of the Auction, Terry didn’t just help broker equipment for broadcasting. “I was more of a volunteer,” he says, modestly, explaining when prodded that he spent a week at the Auction each year, like many others, turning the board that, back then, kept track of what was being auctioned off, what had been bid, and the current bid amount.

Cathy helped longtime—and still active—volunteer Jennifer McGreevy with organizing, tagging, and sorting incoming donations.

“In my first year, we had a board that flipped around and showed nine positions—for nine items—on a white board,” Terry explains. “When someone called to make a bid, I’d erase the former bid and mark a new one.”

On the other side of the board, Warren’s daughter was reloading new items. “It wasn’t nearly as automated as it is today,” he says.

“I was there all day for the whole week, and every now and then, somebody would come and substitute on the board, so I could drink a cup of coffee or have a Coke or something,” Terry says. “Jennifer and Cathy did a phenomenal job of organizing the items for sale and keeping them straight.”

Terry retired from the cable industry in 2003, and in 2008, after living in the Lakes Region for about a decade, he and Cathy moved to Philadelphia to be closer to their daughter and granddaughter. 

Terry has returned to the area once to attend the Auction, and still keeps in touch with Warren and David and Susan Rountree, volunteers who he called “huge motivators.”

“Taking part in the Auction was a wonderful experience for me,” he says. “It’s something I’ll never, ever forget.”

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