As RJ posted below, we raised over $8,000 during the auction, ALL of which went to the softball program. When we started discussing the possibility of the auction, I was hoping to get a couple thousand dollars for the program - silly me.

Coach D'Amour was so very excited about the auction and had this to say during a Podcast with Evan Hughes:

The response was simply overwhelming. It does a couple of things for our program.

1. We got over $8,000 from the auction and the effect that $8,000 has to our program is significant. I don’t know that the average fan realizes how much $8,000 means to our program and how far it can go for softball. It’s a big deal for us. People might say, “it’s only $8,000 – that’s nothing,” but it is for us. For our budget, it’s a lot. Don’t get me wrong – our budget is good, but anything that supplements it is a positive.

2. And also, the public support of the auction showed our girls that people are onboard with what we’re trying to do. (Because of Covid) we don’t get 1,000 fans at our games. When we only get 300 at our fans at our game, you look up at the stands and they’re half empty and you think ‘we’re having a really good year - where’s the fan support?’ I get it – there’s a buzz about the program, but we can only get 300 people in the stadium. I know there’s a lot of people that watch us and like us, but it’s certainly fun to see that support manifest itself in other ways.

When you have people bidding $160 for a Keely signed softball, you think ‘man, maybe we do have a lot of fans around her.’ It confirmed to the kids that we have a lot of support. And that’s important to them.

Both of those things were really beneficial to our program – the monetary piece of it and the support of the program.

Hopefully, we can do it again – we WILL do it again. It was an important thing for us this year. Thanks to everyone who supported us.