Written by: Jeremy Dorn (Work Study Student)
On Thursday, the Semester at Sea live auction rocked the boat for two hours as funds were raised toward shipboard financial aid and scholarships for future students. A silent auction during the day solicited for items as small as a bag of M&M’s and as big as a fishing trip to Alaska. At 8:00 p.m., the live auction began in the Union as eager students and faculty packed the room to bid on more items. Lifelong Learners Geoff Thompson and Karyn Planett facilitated the first round of items as auctioneers and students Tyler Levine and Severiano Garza followed individually.
Before the live auction actually began, the students were treated to a flash mob to the song “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge as random students in the crowd stood in intervals and began to dance in unison before rushing the front of the room and pulling off a choreographed dance. Then, scholarship student Denise Diaz read an inspirational work that she wrote about what Semester at Sea means to her and asked the audience to bid on items to help the future generations of Semester at Sea students.
When Thompson and Planett took the microphones, they began a procession of hilarious auctioneers who weaved light jokes in and out of the business end of selling the items up for auction. Everything from a mountainous getaway to China, to choosing one meal for the entire shipboard community, to Thompson’s new tie was auctioned to raise funds for Semester at Sea and its future students. According to Thompson, the auction raised around $20,000, but no total has been confirmed.
