OLDS — Things are all set for the 54th annual Kiwanis Auction.
But it’ll be run a little differently this year.
Instead of being held on one night at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #105 in Olds, the event, organized by the Kiwanis Club of Olds, will be held online from Dec. 1-3 via Rosehill Auction Mart & Auction Service Ltd.
To bid on items, go to www.oldsauction.com/rosehill-live.
The auction begins at 9 a.m. Dec. 1, then runs 24 hours a day until closing begins at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3.
Dale Mackie, the auction coordinator, said prospective buyers can either view items up for auction online or drop into the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #105 Wednesday, Dec. 2 from 12 noon to 6 p.m. and Thursday Dec. 3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Then after the auction has closed, on Friday, Dec. 4, they can come in to the legion, pick their purchases up and pay for them from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Mackie said the decision to run the auction online this year was made two to three weeks ago.
“We’re glad we made the call on that because with the way things have been with the cases increasing lately, this is the best thing do with everybody’s safety in mind,” he said during an interview.
“And the cases have been getting worse and worse since, so we’re happy that we did make that call.”
Mackie said it hasn’t really been all that difficult to organize the auction this year even though it’s so different for the group to run it online.
“Rosehill has already been doing this since COVID so they've got most of the bugs worked out for us,” he said.
“It’s a little bit more challenging than it was last year, but we’ve heard through other organizations that online auctions have actually been more successful. Hopefully that is the case, and we’ll find that out as well.”
Mackie said the club is really glad to be able to make arrangements with the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #105 to enable people to go in and view items up for auction in person.
“We didn’t want to just completely exclude them because they’ve been so supportive of us for years, doing this,” he said.
