Hello cat friends! Today, let's talk about our Catathon! Lots of info, so we will devote this blog to our upcoming Catathon. This year, the 7th Catathon is June 25, a Sunday.
If you are fairly new with FFRC, you may wonder what a Catathon is. The Catathon is our main fundraiser. It's a lot of fun. It's a huge bidding auction that lasts all afternoon--with bids on Baskets and Big Ticket Items. It all happens right on the cam! Baskets usually have a theme. Big Ticket Items are usually a single greater item. This is an event that supports FFRC--we have specific goals for what is made from the Catathon.
Think of a Telethon! We will have 7 phone lines going that day, all with the 419-393-2400 number. We usually have 7 rounds of baskets. We inter-mix 3-4 rounds of the Big Ticket Items with the Basket rounds. Each round lasts about 25 minutes--during that time the phones ring with bids. At the end of each round, the highest bidder wins!
The week before Catathon, we will also have a Fun-Riser with items specifically connected with Catathon donations. The winners of these are announced during the Catathon.
We generally have 42 baskets and 21 Big Ticket Items. We also have the Big Big Ticket Items that go thru the entire first 6 rounds--this may consist of 3-4 extra special items.
All in all, Catathons are fun and extremely helpful to FFRC.
We are just beginning to put together the Baskets and Big Ticket Items. Below you will see some of the ideas. In the past, many people offer to send in items that we use--this makes it doubly helpful to us! Please feel free to hop in on any of the Baskets or for Big Ticket Items---ALL help is useful and so appreciated.
I do have a few other dates to give too. We would love it if all items could be here to FFRC by May 15. The reason being is it takes a lot of time to organize this event. We also have a special friend, SonJa who is coming. She will go thru each and every Basket and Big Ticket Item and give us a detail account of what each holds. And then Jen C our volunteer takes a pictures of every Basket and every Big Ticket Item--she takes a vacation week to do this! We realize that items will come late but if the vast majority of things are in before May 15, it sure would help this process! These Rounds then will be on our website for your viewing--and with the hope that you will want to bid on them!
We will have a special round this year. We want everyone to feel they may get a winning bid! So, one round will have possibly 15 items, known as Small Big Ticket Items! These items will be awesome---items of big interest!! We're hoping people can nab these items at a reasonable bid!
And we have another surprise! We have a very special offer from an anonymous FFRC friend! It's called "Everyone can help with Catathon"! No amount is too small to help us. Our anonymous friend will match any donation, anything from $1 to $50. This amount will be FOUR TIMES by her! That means every dollar donated in the name of Catathon, will be $4. So if you donate $10, consider yourself a donor of $40! We will start this now! If you send in a paypal or a check, please label it "Catathon Help" so I will know. We will also take some of this donation and use it to purchase a few items for Catathon. The remainder will be added to the Catathon total. All persons who donate to this, will have their names mentioned on the day of Catathon, along with all donors!
Okay---let's get to the list of suggestions! Remember though, you can come up with your own Basket ideas! We are very flexible. We just want to have fun and to raise funds for FFRC. The "goal list" of needs is currently being worked on. You can do an entire Basket or Big Ticket Item or contribute individual pieces to a Basket.
This is what we have so far:
Cook Companion Basket--complete
Troyer Amish Basket--complete
Crochet & Knitting--needs help
Sewing--have a sewing machine, but need items to go with it
Bath & Body--can add to it
Black Cat Office Supplies--have quite a bit, but more can be added
Survival Food Bucket, First Aid Kit, Survival Pack--complete
Survival 2 person Supply 3 day Emergency Bug Out Items
Cat Litter Box filled with great cat items--complete
2nd cat Basket--need help
Dog Basket--need help
Ferole Artwork--complete
Homemade Garden Goodies--complete
Puzzle Basket--needs help
Baby Girl Basket--needs help
Baby Boy Basket--needs help
Laurel Burch--needs help
Carruth Cat Art work---complete
Canadian Basket---complete
Kitchen Items Basket--needs help
Baking Basket--complete
Larissa's Artsie Treasures--complete
Possibly other basket ideas: Vera Bradley Basket, Camping Basket, Spa/relaxation Basket, Hello Kitty, Camouflage Basket, etc. lots of ideas are out there yet!
We have items that we've received that we will fit here and there into baskets, but you can see we can use more basket ideas! We're always open to fun/new ideas.
For Big Ticket Items and the Small Big Ticket Items, we have:
Fire Tablet 7" with protective Cove
xbox One S 500 GB
3-Echo dots Pro
2 beautiful windchimes
Keyboard and stand
Biggy & Leggydews
Camera Akaso Action--ultra HD 4K edition
2 Peace poles--4-5 feet
2 Peace Poles-3 feet
2-4 foot butterfly and peace garden poles
E-Reader Kindle with cover
Cat Metal Yard Sculpture
Calphalon Classic Self Sharpening Knife block set
Sony PSVita-Wifi/playstation on the Go
3 cat lamps
Warped-dee-doo blanket
cat garden stake
Kuranda Tower
Rosemary from S. Africa--a couple of her beautiful afghans
iPad Air
Canon EOS Rebel T6 Digital SLR camera with tons of extras
Wood Carved Cat iPhone holder
2 Larissa's special Harlequin Cat pictures that are framed
Tiffany Style Peacock lamp
Collectible Old Handwork Copper Carved cat/mechanical cat clock
You can see we have some great new type items. We've only just begun getting organized. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me. We are so extremely appreciative of the donations to fill the needs of each round. A million thanks for the help! We'll keep you updated!
Have a wonderful Easter!
