On March 7, members of the Division Avenue High School PTSA held their fourteenth annual Sweeps and Chinese Auction fundraiser. According to First Vice President of Division Avenue High School PTSA Laura Brown, there were about 150 Chinese auction baskets and 30 bingo prizes that were given out during this year’s event.
The PTSA has been organizing this event for the past 14 years, but it only started to get bigger in the last three years. It is now the largest event that the PTSA has to organize every year. “It wouldn’t be possible without the cooperation of the custodial staff, and all the PTSA members,” said Brown. “We reserve tables now because there’s probably 400 people in there.”
Students helped escort the Sweeps participants to their assigned seats. One of these students, Marisa Clark, a junior at Division Avenue High School, has been helping out at the event for three years.
“It’s really fun,” said Clark. “Everyone likes getting prizes, and you get to spend time with your friends and have fun.”
Clark also helped with handing out the Sweeps cards and putting the numbers on the Sweeps board. She worked with senior Nicole Genco, who has also been working the event for years.
The Chinese auction gave participants the option of bidding on $2 priced baskets, as well as $1 baskets. The baskets that were in the two-dollar range included pricier items, such as a Woodloch vacation, and Disney tickets. Then there were 140 of the one-dollar baskets that included anything from a $50 gift card to Vincent’s Clam Bar, to a trip to the Land of Make Believe.
Last year Genco won a raffle prize of tickets to the Football Hall of Fame and tickets to a Jets game, and Clark won the Moe’s Southwest Grill basket, which included gift cards, Frisbees and a t-shirt.
The Sweeps game had a $5 admission that included a game card with nine games, and a door-prize raffle ticket. Halfway through the event, coffee, cake and tea were served.
“We’ll play two games of Sweeps, and we’ll call twenty of the Chinese auction baskets, and then we’ll play two games of Sweeps and call another twenty of the baskets,” said Brown. “Whatever Sweeps prizes are left over we give out as door prizes.”
All of the money that was raised by this event will go to the Levittown PTSA’s Senior Award fund. As long as all of the criteria are met and the committee agrees, the funds that were made from the event will get split up between the chosen students, according to Brown.
To apply for the Levittown PTSA’s Senior Award, the seniors have to go through an application process. The applicants have to be graduating seniors, who will be furthering their education at a secondary level of school such as college, or a trade school. The students also need a 75 average or better, and are required to fill out a 150-word essay about the PTSA and what it does for the school.
“Last year we gave out 28 monetary awards for about $350 a piece,” said Brown.
Brown also said that she hopes this year’s Sweeps/Chinese auctions fundraiser will help generate even more money for the PTSA Senior Award fund than last year.
