Auction move to a new home finds the same faithful support
The Harvest Ridge expo center provided ample room for the Rails-to-Trails Benefit Auction on Saturday, June 8. The auction moved from its usual home at the Hipp Station by the trail, but people turned out despite the move.
For years now the Holmes County Rails-to-Trails Benefit Auction has been at Hipp Station alongside the trail in Millersburg.
On Saturday, June 8 that all changed when the auction took place at Harvest Ridge at the fairgrounds.
It was something new and something different. But in the end some things didn’t change at all, like the support of the community that sees the great value in what the trail offers to Holmes County and its people.
Perhaps there was no better advocate for the move than Wednesday, June 5. The Wednesday before the auction is normally the evening volunteers erect the enormous tent that houses the auction at Hipp Station. That particular evening high winds and heavy rains came roaring through, setting of tornado-warning sirens. What the volunteers would have been facing in erecting that tent on that night would have been a harrowing experience.
Instead, they could take solace in the confines of the expo center, where a weather-controlled climate greeted them under the safety of the enclosed area where the weather didn’t matter.
“When you’re as comfortable as we were after so many years at the Hipp Station, it is hard to move, but this is exactly why Harvest Ridge was created, for venues like this,” said Mike Taylor, Rails-to-Trails Coalition board member. “There is a lot of sentiment to being at the trail itself, but in terms of the amount of work that went into that compared to this, with all of the set-up and tear-down, this really is a great venue with air-conditioning, no mosquitoes and no weather to deal with. Setting up on Wednesday night would have been an absolute nightmare for us.”
The auction even provided a shuttle service to and from Hipp Station, where auction patrons who arrived via the trail in buggy or on bicycles could hop in a van and ride to the auction, which helped for safety reasons.
“We did discuss what this move would mean to the Amish community,” Taylor said. “But we all felt this was the right move to make. It changed the ambiance of the auction a bit, but we had a terrific representation all around and especially from the Amish community, and I think it will only get better.”
As for the auction itself, it seemed smaller and more sparsely attended, although that was far from the truth. The reason it appeared to be that way was because of the shear magnitude of the expo center and the surrounding grounds. The space allowed the auction to spread out all of the food, all of the auction items and the auctions themselves, with a second smaller auction taking place in the Baker Building.
One needed only to look at the always-present line of people waiting to purchase barbecue chicken dinners to realize there was a huge number of people in attendance.
The items on the auction block included a log cabin, play house, Toro lawn mower with a deck, a Hustler walk-behind mower, all kinds of crafts, an open buggy, lawn furniture, bedroom suites, dining furniture and a silent auction, just to name a small amount of what was present.
Holmes County Park District director Jen Halverson said they once again owe a big debt of gratitude to the many people who either donated to or helped collect the many items for auction, as well as to those who came to bid and support the trail.
“This has been a great experience for all of us to make this move to Harvest Ridge,” Halverson said. “The turn-out seems typical, so people were obviously willing to make that move with us. We have more than enough parking available, which has always been a problem. So the support we continue to receive from the community continues to be a big piece of the reason we are able to maintain such a beautiful section of the trail.”
Halverson said this auction, which typically raises around $100,000, is what keeps the trail open and viable. She noted that the auction committee worked hard to make sure every possible concern that might arise was covered.
Not only does the trail serve as a safety blanket for buggy, bicycling and walking traffic for locals, but also it provides a drawing card for the county as another piece of the tourism growth.
“We are open 365 days a year, and this auction continues to play an integral role in allowing us to offer the very best trail we can to people from here or from far away,” Halverson said. “It is exciting and fun to see more and more people discover this trail and what an amazing journey they can make through Ohio and through Amish Country. We are right in the middle of it all, and people see things here they don’t always see, from the natural beauty to everything that Amish Country has to offer.”
While it may have looked and felt different physically, the Rails-to-Trails Benefit Auction had the same old flavor and support it has become accustomed to experiencing over the years, thanks to a caring and giving community.