Quarter Auction Raises $5K for Guatemala Clinic

The Good Neighbors Group Quarter Auction on April 19 raised more than $5,000 for a Guatemala medical clinic that will serve about 10,000 people.

The event was headed by Julie Shay, founder of The Good Neighbors Group, which is a local organization that helps community members in need.

“The event was amazing,” Shay said. “We had to have had at least 150 people there, which is wonderful and what we were hoping for. This type of event needs a big audience for it to work. It was very festive and definitely a family event. We had so much great local business support, which was so incredibly generous.”

A quarter at a time, auction attendees raised $5,500 for a medical clinic in Nueva San Jose, Guatemala. The event featured 105 quarter auction items, 23 silent auction items, a 50/50 raffle and food sales.

Shay first became aware of the clinic project from a friend who lives in Guatemala. Shay’s friend, Ellen Finn, started Project School Supplies when she moved to Guatemala and orchestrated the building of the clinic.

Before the auction, Shay said that the Guatemala government would supply a full-time physician and two full-time nurses along with equipment once the clinic is built.

Construction of the clinic had started earlier this year and with the quarter auction, Shay was hoping to raise $4,180 to put a roof on the clinic. She thought that a finite goal of a specific amount for a detailed purpose would help with the fundraising efforts.

“It feels wonderful. I don’t have a sense really of what brought people [to the auction]. I know a lot of people who came, came for Good Neighbors Group. I also feel that people know how special it was to be raising money for this purpose—raising money to purely to get money for this roof.”

Shay said the roof will only take about five days to put together and the supplies have already been delivered, which Finn said has given the clinic a newfound momentum to keep moving forward.

In an email, Finn, who attended the auction, thanked everyone who attended the auction for their support.

“I am completely thrilled and blown away by all you have done to help us complete this clinic,” Finn wrote. “For all the donors, the participants, the leaders and coordinators, the volunteers.... thank you all for making this such a fabulous success. We have ordered the materials. The trucks are on the way. The roofer is standing by.”

See Also:

• Good Neighbors Raises Funds for Guatemala Clinic