At 'Best Auction Ever,' students bid to volunteer

True to its name, "The Best Auction Ever" offered students plenty of prizes and free food on the night of Oct. 15 but with a twist. Instead of paying for tickets, students earned them by pledging community service hours for up to four Student Volunteers Council service projects.

"We were talking as a class government and we thought that if the point of this is to increase student participation in service projects and if winning items was entirely based upon who paid the most money, it wouldn't have much of an effect," Class of 2007 Vice President and the auction's lead organizer Matt Feinstein '07 said. "There is something to be said of putting time in for service rather than paying money and hoping it goes to the right place."

Participants pledged a total of about 125 hours of community service to the SVC projects Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Princeton Young Achievers, Fisher Prep. and Pit Stop. Every hour pledged earned participants six tickets, each of which could be entered into a raffle for one of more than 20 prizes.

Feinstein said he expected most, if not all, students who pledged hours to complete them, adding that the pledging of hours was "an honor code type of thing."

The prizes included the chance to throw the first pitch at a Princeton baseball game, a basket of gift certificates to T-Sweets, tennis lessons, a juggling lesson, private serenades and an iPod nano, probably the most sought-after item.

Feinstein obtained most of these prizes from fellow students by asking friends and contacting various student groups and sports teams.

"The key point about student items is the fact that, besides being items that benefit the student who bids on them, they increase the interaction between students and student groups who otherwise wouldn't know each other," Feinstein said.

One of Feinstein's roommates, varsity lacrosse player Will Presti '07, donated a lacrosse lesson. "We have to do a couple of community service projects a year for the team," Presti said. "Coach [Bill] Tierny makes sure of that. I worked with a kid this summer [teaching lacrosse] a couple of times a week, so this is not a totally new thing for me."

Feinstein said he was intent on having participants come away from the auction with more than prizes. "We're providing the items as a spark to generate some interest in the event," he said. "Hopefully, people won't just be interested in the prizes but in the service projects we're presenting."

Though Chip Snyders '09 didn't win the iPod nano to which he devoted most of his 72 tickets, he said he was still glad to have pledged 12 hours to Princeton Young Achievers, a program for mentoring underprivileged students in the surrounding community.

"I just looked at it, and it seemed kind of fun," Snyders said. "Storytelling looked really cool because I like animating things and getting out of the Princeton bubble."

Julie Wu '07 pledged her service hours to Fisher Prep., a tutoring program for 7th and 8th graders at Fisher Preparatory Charter School of Trenton. "It's something I've always wanted to do anyway, and this is a good excuse to go out and do it," Wu said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Though Feinstein said the number of hours pledged exceeded his expectations, the event was at times nearly empty. Students working the event speculated that eating club events, Rocktoberfest and parents weekend were possible reasons for the modest showing.

"All three [affected attendance], but this is fairly good for what we were expecting," Feinstein said of the auction. "A lot of people stepped in for a few minutes and pledged several hours. We're pretty happy about it."