The Sport Management Club at Syracuse University will be holding its 10th annual auction to benefit charities in central New York during the holiday season, and the group intends for it to be bigger than ever.

At the men’s basketball home game against St. John’s University on Saturday, the club will hold its 10th annual silent auction for attendees of the game. This year’s recipient of the money raised is the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central New York.

Over the past nine years, the club has raised over $213,000 for various charities in the central New York region, some of which include the food bank and children’s hospital, said Haley Eklund, a senior sport management major and marketing chair for the club. This year, the club has set a goal to raise at least $40,000 to break the mark of a quarter of a million dollars raised over the past 10 years, Eklund said.

If the goal amount of money is raised at this auction, it will be able to fund the wishes of four children in the region, as costs to fund the wish of an ill child are rising to roughly $10,000 per wish, said Diane Kuppermann, president of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central New York.

For the Make-A-Wish Foundation, this charity auction is about more than just the money. The publicity and exposure that the organization has already received simply leading up to the event has already been a huge benefit, Kuppermann said.

“I am completely blown away by the work that the students have done,” Kuppermann said.

Items at the auction include a wide array of potential gift items for the holiday season. Almost every sport has memorabilia, and a variety of teams and players are represented through autographs, tickets, clothing and other objects, said the Sport Management Club adviser Kate Veley. There are also items specific to SU and gift items ranging from electronics to restaurant gift cards, she said.

In comparison to past years, this particular auction has more than 500 items that are to be auctioned off, which is a record number. These items also have a higher value, leading to high expectations for this year’s event, Veley said.

The process to select the benefiting charity from the auction each year begins in the planning done the spring semester prior to the event. The two chairs of the event research charities in the area that meet the eligibility requirements and narrow down the options to five or six charities. The chairs visit the charities and they bring back information to the rest of the Sport Management Club, a group of about 100 members, who in turn vote on which charity should be partnered with the club for the auction, Eklund said.

“It’s really nice that the club gets involved in picking the charity,” Eklund said, whose role as marketing chair involves making people aware of the event and coordinating publicity leading up to the auction.

The group’s interaction with the charity has been more involved than ever, and the event also has two financial sponsors, Trusted Choice and Wheels for Wishes, which will help make the 10th year even more special, Veley said.

Speakers from Make-A-Wish, including wish kids, have attended Sport Management Club meetings throughout the semester to speak to students about their personal stories and demonstrate how exactly this auction will be helping children, Veley said. She added that the meetings would help motivate students even further to make this year’s auction a success.

Published on December 1, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Erin: eemcdona@syr.edu