Auction raises $20,000 for charity
Cawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Iqaluit (Mar 12/01) - "I have $900, I need $950...."
"Sold for $950," said auctioneer Jerry Ell, who was selling an hour with Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik at the Nunavut Trade Show gala.
Over 350 people lined tables under the dim lights in one of the Canadian Armed Forces' hangars in Iqaluit March 3.
After a dinner of smoked arctic char and other country foods, the bidding for the auction began. Over $20,000 was raised for a special pediatric bed for the Baffin Regional Hospital.
Ell's voice filled the hangar, saying I have this price but I need that price -- for items such as sealskin, carvings and even politicians -- until thousands of dollars had been raised.
"It's fun but it is the only auction I will ever do," said Ell, whose day job is president of Qikiqtaaluk Corporation.
Ell also sold a one-hour time period with both Iqaluit Centre and Iqaluit East MLAs Hunter Tootoo and Ed Picco.
Tootoo was bought for $900 while Picco was purchased for $850, but not before he grabbed the microphone from Ell and hammed it up with the audience.
What they have to do in that hour is up to the buyer, said Ell.
"If they want to, I guess they can make sure their mouths are taped up in the House for an hour," he said after the event.
"Or they can make them say a funny statement in the House on Friday afternoon."
The non-human variety of merchandise had buyers waving their pink cards with black-markered numbers as well.
Several prints averaged about $1,000 each and floater suits donated by the Canadian Coast Guard sold for about $600 each.
Ell has been entertaining trade show audiences and encouraging bidders to inch their arms high into the air at the annual event for three years.
Although Ell has never received any formal training in auctioneering, he sounded like he had lots of practice.
"It was fun, but I would not go after that as a career," he said in good humour. "I'd find some other way to generate revenue if I needed to."
