Bearspaw Christian School (BCS) is sugarcoating one of their biggest fundraisers of the year.
The school’s 5th Annual Dessert Auction is set for Feb. 7 at 7 p.m., and guests are being warned to bring their appetite.
“The auction is probably one of the most anticipated events of the year for the school community,” said director of communications for BCS Christopher Anquist.
Geared towards the sweet tooth, chocolate lovers and cake bosses alike, about 50 desserts will be on display throughout the evening, ranging from decadent cakes and cheesecakes to plates of assorted cookies. Desserts can be bid on throughout the evening through a silent auction, and the high-end items will be auctioned off at the end of the night.
Jim Crites, director of community development for BCS, said the live auction is one of the highlights of the event.
“We have two professional auctioneers that come in, like the ones you have at cattle sales, and they just have a ball with it. They get people up and going. It’s really a good time,” he said.
In past years, it’s been common for specialty cakes to sell for up to $3,000, said Anquist, and in 2013, more than $18,000 was raised at the event. The Annual Dessert Auction supports the school’s Discipleship Initiative, which includes the Grade 11 student’s annual missions trip to Tactic, Guatemala.
This year, 31 students and a team of about eight staff and parents will be making the trip down south for two weeks at the end of March. Crites said BCS has been partnering with a local organization in Guatemala called Impact Ministries for the last nine years. Teams help build schools with the ministry and engage in activities with the 1,500 kids that attend the 10 schools run by the organization.
“There’s tons of physical labour involved (in the trip). The students are digging and pouring concrete and moving rocks and stones. It’s really something because these kids are giving up their spring break to do this,” said Crites.
He said the team also plans and runs day camps for high school students in Tactic, which involves crafts, drama productions, music and sports.
“This is a great way for our students to learn how to teach and to lead and to connect with other kids,” said Crites, adding the whole experience is a great way for youth to break out of their comfort zone.
“It really shakes up their North American affluence sense of entitlement. It puts a developing country sense of living into their head and they can really evaluate their perspective. It’s changing for them to see that people in poverty can be really happy,” he added.
Phil Morrow, a BCS alumni, went on the trip in 2009. He said the experience brought many highlights, as well as lessons learned.
“One of the things that really scared me when I was on the plane ride there was that I didn’t know the language (Spanish). I wasn’t sure how far the very basics were going to get me. But when I was there, I realized that doesn’t matter. When you’re spending time with the locals and sitting down playing with the kids, you can create a connection without language,” said Morrow.
He added while he was in Guatemala, he often felt a sense of guilt seeing people live in poverty and knowing he “had so much at home.”
“We would go over to someone’s house, and you knew that they didn’t have much but they were going to make a feast for us, to welcome us. That was really tough to swallow.”
Morrow said he also found it challenging to see that many of the issues the local Guatemalans face on a daily basis could easily be dealt with if provided the same access as North Americans.
“A lot of the sicknesses that can kill people there can be prevented by something as simply as Penicillin or tools we’d find in a medical kit,” he said, adding it was encouraging to see the work international teams did made a difference in the lives of locals.
“There’s a reason we have the gifts that we do and that God has blessed us with what we have. It’s a matter of finding how do we use those to help others,” said Morrow.
Tickets for the Dessert Auction can be bought online at bearspawschool.com/dessert. Tickets are $20 per person and the event is open to the public.
