Guests at the Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction kick-off dinner included, from left, seated: Robert Gawlas, board of directors; Cathy Gawlas; Maureen Leahigh, board of directors, and Karen Shuster, board of directors. Standing: auction chair Tom Mosca, Andrea Mosca, Carol Sweeney and head librarian Martha Butler.
Carol Sweeney and auctioneer Steve Traver admire the quilt, with a ‘strawberry fields’ theme, that will be chanced off at the Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Volunteers, friends attend kick-off dinner
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Leslie Horoshko of Dallas, left, who crafted the quilt that will be chanced off at the auction, and Nancy Johnson of Dallas, prepare to enjoy the kick-off dinner.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
If you attend the 77th annual Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction in early July, you never know what you might bring home.
“Breaker Brewing Co. donated this,” Eileen Godin said earlier this week, pointing to a bottle of Belsnickler Ale, decked out with a portrait of Santa Claus on the label, and accompanied by a glass and gift certificate.
“Aerus donated twelve space heaters, and Touch of Eyelet donated 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles representing different seasons” she said, explaining that as chair of the “new goods” committee, she’s grateful for all these donations of new goods that are destined for the auction block.
Godin is one of more than 100 volunteers who are pitching in to make this year’s auction run smoothly, and many of them attended a library auction kick-off dinner on Monday at Newberry Estate’s Appletree Terrace.
Also at the dinner was Leslie Horoshko, a self-taught quilter who once again crafted a distinctive quilt to be raffled off during the auction. She’s also an avid reader of library books, with a penchant for family sagas.
“I read every day, and I couldn’t afford to buy all the books I want to read,” she said. “If I see something I like at Barnes & Noble, I’ll check to see if the library has it.”
Horoshko also chairs the antiques committee, which collects all sorts of treasures from antiquity for the auction.
“Our grandchildren enjoy it,” Cathy Gawlas of Shavertown said with a laugh, remembering how she successfully bid on a vintage cast iron bank shaped like a magician. You feed it a coin, press a lever and the coin seems to magically disappear.
She hadn’t set out to buy it, Gawlas explained, but sometimes, if the bidding loses momentum during the auction, she finds herself offering a bid just to help it along. And that’s one way to buy an old-fashioned cast iron bank.
“I told her we could just make a donation,” her husband, attorney Bob Gawlas said.
As Monday evening’s gathering prepared for dinner, a steady rain streamed on the terrace.
“I know we need the rain,” auction chair Tom Mosca said with a glance out the window. “But not on those days in July.”
The 77th annual auction, which board member Karen Shuster described as “the soul of the community” is set for July 6-9 on the library grounds. Each day, the auction preview begins and booths open at 5 p.m. The bidding begins at 6:30 p.m.
Shuttle service will be available from Weis Markets at the Country Club Shopping Center beginning at 4 p.m. each day.