Members of the Battle Ground Rotary Club designed and built holiday gift baskets to be auctioned off at the Rotary’s annual Festival of Wreaths and Wine Auction between Wednesday, Dec. 2, and Saturday, Dec. 5.
Local businesses and organizations from all over North County have sponsored some of this year’s gift baskets, including this one from the Ridgefield Raptors.
Local wineries have donated wines to be auctioned off in baskets. Some baskets have a regional theme like this “Spanish Wine” basket.
The Battle Ground Rotary Club will be offering a socially distanced celebration of its annual Festival of Wreaths and Wine Auction this year.
Between Wednesday, Dec. 2, and Saturday, Dec. 5, community members can go online to place “silent” auction bids on homemade holiday wreaths and various gifts, including themed wine baskets.
Battle Ground Rotary Club President Dan Hanenkrat said some of the wine baskets will have a “Spanish theme,” “Argentinian theme,” and more and will include wine from those regions along with a recipe for a meal that pairs perfectly with the selected wine. Hanenkrat said the club wanted to offer the ability for the winner of a basket to “create their own Napa (a wine region) experience” while still being in social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Hanenkrat mentioned that winners of the baskets don’t have to cook the meal at home for a full experience and can take the wine down to Galeotti's Wine Cellar once it reopens and the staff there will open the bottle for an on-site tasting and pairing.
A total of 15 of the 25 gift baskets will be geographically-based, five will be based upon local wineries and five will be sponsored by local organizations such as the Ridgefield Raptors. Along with the wine baskets, the Battle Ground Rotary Club will be auctioning off 25 handmade holiday wreaths. In a normal year, the club gets together on the Sunday after Thanksgiving for a potluck-style wreath building event complete with food and the Seahawks game on the television. While this year will be a little more distant, Hanenkrat said the wreaths were still made by hand on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Hanenkrat explained how the club sees the wreaths as a “work of art” and gives many of the members a sense of pride.
The Festival of Wreaths and Wine Auction started five years ago as a way to raise money for local and international projects the Battle Ground Rotary Club is involved in. Hanenkrat said the club tried a couple of other fundraisers, such as Taste and Tunes at Alderbrook Park, and eventually settled on the Festival of Wreaths and Wine Auction. Last year, the club hosted an entire dinner celebration at the Battle Ground Community Center. Last year’s event included dressing up formally, live music and a silent auction for the wreaths and gift baskets. This year, Hanenkrat said the club had to get creative with hosting the event in a socially distanced way. Instead of being a live event and auction, it’s all taking place online though the auction portal Aucteria. Through the portal, community members can place bids on items from their homes as well as show them the progress gauge of funds raised and more. Hanenkrat explained how the online service will send out notifications when you get outbid and when the auction is close to over. Hanenkrat said he loves the idea of the online auction and plans to keep the auction and bidding digital in the future, even when live events are happening again, as a way for people to participate in the auction while eating dinner.
All the funds raised from the event will go to Rotary projects and not the club’s operational budget. Last year, funds went to purchasing medical equipment for Battle Ground HealthCare, donations for the North County Community Food Bank and the purchasing of school supplies for local school kids in need. Internationally, Hanenkrat said the funds were used to fund 50 kids for a semester of school in Kenya as well as working with Rotary International and its project to eradicate polio worldwide.
“That’s where all the money goes. It’s not club operations but it’s spent in our community doing good things and as a part of this international project.”
Hanenkrat concluded by thanking all the local businesses in the Battle Ground area.
“Even if they didn’t sponsor (the auction) we want to thank them for listening to our story,” he said. “We know some people couldn’t sponsor this year but we want to thank them anyway. They make the community better.”
