Steamboat Pilot & Today

The Ski Town USA Golf Classic benefit auction on Friday raised more money than it did last year; however, exact numbers won't be known for a week.

The live auction raised more than $100,000, Bonnie Boylan said.

Boylan is a member of the Steamboat Dream Team, which along with the Steamboat Rotary Club, helped organize the benefit golf tournament and auction.

Silent auction totals are expected to be around $30,000. The grand total, considered at least $130,000, should beat last year's mark of $110,000, auction chairperson Mignon Huizenga said.

All the proceeds from the auction goes to the Doak Walker Care Center and Grandkids Child Care Center, Steamboat Rotary's youth and senior programs and the Doak Walker Memorial Endowment Scholarship Fund.

The Golf Classic benefit auction brought more than 500 people out Friday night to the Steamboat Sheraton's Grand Ballroom. Participants were those who bought into the golf tournament at $1,800 for a foursome group or $475 for a single golf spot. Non-golfers paid $40 for a benefit auction ticket.

Steamboat residents and visitors from all over the United States were at the event.

"There were a lot of golfers, but we had a lot of people who just wanted to come for the party," Boylan said of auction participants.

Though the party was reported as a "blast," with help from sponsor Skyy Vodka's martini bar, no one forgot about bidding on the 300 silent auction items and 30 live auction items.

Big-name sponsors, such as Skyy Vodka, Nike, Pepsi/Aquafina, were one of the reasons for the high auction totals from a large crowd as well as being responsible for selling all the spots in the golf tournament on Saturday for the first time, Huizenga said.

Steamboat residents John and Susan Peterson made the highest bid at the auction. They offered $36,000 for a one-week cruise around the Caribbean on a 122-foot luxury yacht, which also is the highest bid ever made at the auction.

The Petersons got a deal, too. The trip is worth $50,000, Huizenga said.

The International Yacht Collection donated the package, so all of the $36,000 goes to the charities.

"That's a big deal," Huizenga said, who has a family connection the yacht company. "To be asked to do that means they have to donate all that crew time."

The Petersons also paid a little more than $6,000 for VIP seats to the next Super Bowl, making the couple the most generous buyers of the evening.

Other auction items of interest included sports jerseys signed by Patrick Roy, Wayne Gretzky, Larry Walker and numerous other pro athletes, golf packages to various exotic locations, a trip to Hollywood to see a taping of the television show Frasier, and four tickets to see Cher in concert at the Pepsi Center with VIP seating.

Huizenga said organizers try to offer auction items that can't be bought without having some connections.

For example, tickets and VIP treatment at the Kentucky Derby and pit passes to a NASCAR or Winston Cup car race of choice were offered on Friday aren't usually available to the general public.

Organizers work 10 months out if the year to ensure the Ski Town USA Golf Classic events run tightly and that its participants have lots of interesting items to bid on.

Twenty volunteers in the community also worked at the auction on Friday.

Huizenga said now that the big weekend is over, organizers have two months of break time in front of them. In October, planning for the next golf tournament and auction on Aug. 15 will begin.