Annual festival raises scholarships

Ryan Land
Editor-in-Chief

The Crowder College Foundation will host the 12th annual Festival of Wreaths scholarship fundraising event on Nov. 18 in the Elsie Plaster Community Center on the Neosho campus.

“It’s an opportunity for people to not only come out and help support scholarships and our students, but they can also really get kind of a jump start on their holiday shopping,” said Haley Reardon, assistant director and resource development and alumni relations.

A silent auction will take place at 4 p.m., followed by dinner at 5 p.m. The evening’s events will wrap up with a live auction, which starts at 6:30 p.m.

Items for bid on the auction block include a 2009 Ford Mustang convertible, a trip to Cancun, as well as tickets to the 2015 Professional Bull Riding World Finals in Las Vegas.

“We have things that are also on a much smaller scale,” Reardon stated. “Everything from fast food gift certificates to spa packages, restaurant gift certificates and ball game tickets.”

While last year’s event raised over $96,000, event organizers hope this year’s festival will exceed that amount.

“We always just kind of set a goal to exceed what we’ve done last year,” explained Reardon. “I would love to hit six digits this year and exceed $100,000. As long as we continue improving upon what we’ve done the previous year, we try not to set a hard and fast goal, but certainly we want to exceed what we’ve done in the past.”

Anyone can attend the event, but RSVP’s are recommended.