Belmont University students are working with a local nonprofit organization for a silent auction 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Dec. 3 in Neely Dining Hall that will benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee.
In lieu of cash, the Belmont community and its neighbors are asked to bring canned goods to bid on a two-hour Nashville Christmas Light Bus Tour, National Football League gear, artwork, restaurant gift cards, cupcakes and baby items during the 7 Habits of Healthy Neighborhoods Silent Auction and Family Holiday Event. The event is free and open to the public, and also includes face painting, crafts, cookie decorating, food, live music and games.
Each canned food item will be exchanged for five tickets that can be used to bid on items. The minimum bid will begin at five tickets for smaller items and 50 tickets for larger items. Media studies instructor Susan Barnes’ event planning class pioneered the auction as part of a class project and aims to collect 250 canned goods for Second Harvest.
Barnes said, “They have learned so much about event planning, working with a real client and working as a team. It has been a real experience for them to work with that many people and keep people on track.”
“The idea of a canned food drive silent auction came from a group brainstorm,” said Juliann Grill, a junior studying public relations. “The assignment was to plan an event that would bring together the 12South neighborhood. From it we have learned how to communicate with clients, work as a team in large groups, how to organize people’s duties and follow up with donors.”
Neighborhoods InspireHealth previously worked with a freshman seminar class to interview Sunnyside and 12South seniors as research for a national template for communities to improve their residents’ body, heart, mind and spirit using free resources.
“This event focuses on the spirit dimension as we focus on health in the four dimensions,” said Heather Dubuque, Neighborhoods InspireHealth’s vice president of marketing and communications. “It has been a wonderful collaboration with the event planning students, and they have done a great job. They sought out local retailers and vendors for donations and took care of the logistics. We want partnership with Belmont students to continue because we have seen great work.”
