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Dinner tickets still available; auction items still being accepted

The Maries County R-2 Schools Foundation continues to accept donations for its annual dinner and auction fundraiser. The event will get underway on March 7 at the Belle-Bland Community Center. Dinner tickets, at $15 per person, are still available at banks in Belle as well as the school administration office.

Area businesses have been very generous, and several new items have been donated, along with gift certificates. Included in the auction will be a 50-inch 4K television, a 32-inch 720p television, Frigidaire black stainless 1100 watt microwave, Epson Workforce Pro laser printer, three Rhino camouflage hunting blinds, four St. Louis Cardinal box seat tickets, 2000 pounds of steel tubing, a Partick Mahomes limited-edition bobble head, autographed Mike Schildt baseball, three tandem loads of white rock, a tandem load of screened creek gravel and many other new items and gift certificates. Several homemade desserts and gift baskets will be for sale also.
Again this year, Mark McClane is donating a one-week stay June 20-27, 2020, at The Driftwood Inn and Resort, Unit 215-B, Vero Beach, FL. For more details, contact Mark McClane, 949-296-5640. You can view the resort at www.verobeachdriftwood.com.

New this year, donations of gently used items are being accepted. To make an auction donation, please contact board member Steve Vogt, 573-680-9968. Vogt will be at the Belle-Bland Community Center from noon to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, March 6, to accept donations.

For those with dinner tickets, dinner will be served from 5-6:45 p.m. Fried catfish, potato casserole, baked beans, cole slaw and hush puppies are on the menu.

Persons wishing to attend only the auction should arrive at 6:45 p.m. The auction will begin at 7 p.m. with auctioneers Roger Stockton and Eddie Arnold.

The Maries County R-II Schools Foundation is part of the Meramec Regional Community Foundation (MRCF), and its scholarship fund is managed by Community Foundation of the Ozarks, of which MRCF is an affiliate. Auction proceeds will be added to the group’s Community Scholarship Fund, which is an endowed scholarship. The group wants to grow the fund to provide a scholarship to every college-bond graduating senior, starting in 2025.

Applications for local scholarships are now available from Belle High School Counselor Chris Feeler. Additional scholarship opportunities are available online at cfozarks.org.

In late March, the foundation committee will be reviewing scholarship applications and selecting recipients for the class of 2020. The foundation committee expects there will be more requests than there are scholarships, all the more reason for the annual fundraiser.