Viewers who tune into the annual WPBS All Star Auction in April will have the opportunity to bid on a Community Chest every night. In doing so, they will be bidding on a chest made by students in the Jefferson County ACES program.
This marks the third year that BOCES students have built the chests, a popular item during the television station’s spring auction, one of their biggest fundraisers of the year.
A total of ten chests were built in the Woodshop class taught by instructor Robert Demers II, using pine that was donated by White’s Lumber. Students dropped off the chests in person to the WPBS studios on March 8. They were personally thanked by WPBS staff, given a pizza lunch and a brief tour of the station.
The chests will be picked up by different community organizations, decorated and filled with items, and then returned to WPBS to be auctioned off in front of an international audience. Some of the students involved will be invited back to talk about their work on the chests live on television.
“To see these students pull together and put these chests together was a wonderful thing to see,” said Demers. “I’m very impressed with these kids and they have been excited with the project as well. This is a very important partnership with WPBS.”
“We wouldn’t be able to auction off the Community Chests if it weren’t for the hard work of these students,” said Lynn Brown, WPBS President and General Manager. “Every year, each of these chests gets sold and raises thousands of dollars for WPBS. It creates a sense of community that people get really excited about.”
The WPBS All Star Auction will take place April 14-22.
