The 100 Mile House Wrangler’s secret bid art auction has concluded, netting $5,100 for the hockey club’s upcoming season.
For the last month, more than a dozen paintings and photographs by local artists have been on display at 100 Mile House businesses where the community could bid on them via the use of secret ballots. Now the bids have been tallied and the winners contacted to pick up their new pieces of art.
“It’s fantastic,” said Bruce Madu, a director on the Wranglers board. “It did what we wanted. It got the Wranglers name out there and got people into businesses they normally wouldn’t go into. It was a win-win for everybody. Overall, the whole Wranglers’ association is just elated with the support people of 100 Mile House are willing to give us.”
Bobbie Crane, who helped the Wranglers connect with her fellow artists, said she is incredibly proud and humbled by the community’s response to the auction. This is due in large part to the fact her painting Bugle Boy received a bid of $1,000, $400 above what she had expected.
“It’s a donation mainly to the Wranglers. It’s very humbling to me that someone would offer that kind of money for a $600 painting but I think the fellow who purchased it is quite a Wranglers’ supporter, so I think that had a lot to do with the amount he bid,” Crane said.
To her, the auction was a testament to the community spirit, both from her fellow artists who donated a piece of themselves through their work and the Wranglers Nation. The Wranglers are an integral part of the community, Crane said, and the way the community supports them proves that.
The auction went so well that Crane said the Wranglers are considering making it an annual event. While she said they haven’t decided yet, one way or the other, she said she’d absolutely take part in the auction again as long as she has the time to volunteer.
Those with the winning bids will be contacted and told when they can pick up the art, which is being stored at the South Cariboo Rec Centre. Three of the paintings that didn’t sell are being planned to be included in another silent bid auction when the Wranglers start the season in the fall.
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Night Practice by Kathy Crawshay went for $500. (Photo submitted)
