Annually, Midtown’s Parent-Teacher-Student Organization (PTSO) holds an auction alongside a fundraising party in order to raise money for the school’s second semester. This year, the unprecedented cold weather caused the fundraising party, which usually accompanies the auction, themed Midtown Masquerade and hosted at Park Tavern, to be uprooted and moved to March 13th.
The auction itself was still important for fundraising purposes and was instead moved online and held over the sudden long weekend. Coincidentally, this was the first year the auction was already intended to be partially online.
“This is actually the first year we’re doing an online component,” PTSO president Katie Ludlam said. “It was normally only in-person, but we decided to have more items this year and do an online component. I’m really grateful we did because of the weather. It’s been super successful so far. We had over 100 people registered to bid. People can also, on the online auction, donate money directly to Fund-A-Need, and we’ve raised a lot of money doing that, with just people going on and giving money to help support the Fund-A-Need.”
PTSO member Lisa Olmsted believes the money raised throughout the auction and the Midtown Masquerade event will provide essential support to students and teachers, as teachers can make requests for resources, and extra money raised goes to miscellaneous needs.
“We look at the Atlanta Public Schools and the Midtown High School budget, and it’s big compared to many budgets, but it doesn’t provide everything,” Olmstead said. “It does not provide funding for everything that our students and teachers need, so that’s where funding from the PTSO comes in and is so important. If teachers want to do something, or if they need something for their classrooms or clubs, the PTSO can use the money that it gets from the fundraisers to supplement it. It also provides a lot of the items that the students in our school really like to take advantage of, like participating in clubs or getting entrance fees to certain competitions or activities.”
The auction offered a wide variety of items, ranging from Midtown merchandise to pilates gift cards and tickets for Midtown Drama’s spring production of Mean Girls. Including the Fund-A-Needs, which ask for specific amounts of cash for school resources, there were a total of 83 bidding opportunities.
“We go to local businesses and ask them for stuff, especially restaurants,” Ludlam said. “We solicit our Midtown families. We put out call to actions, for if you have owned a business or a service of some sort, and if you would like to donate. We’ve asked teachers, for example, we asked the art teacher, and she had an art student donate an item. A group of students that do woodworking donated a chair. We get back the stuff from the school that way and from local businesses and people in the community. People are usually really happy to help, because they know all the money’s going straight to the teachers and school.”
Olmsted said the auction was still very engaging despite being online, believing it may have encouraged greater profit and participation than the in-person event.
“I think it gave people more time to consider bidding or increase their bid if they got outbid on something,” Olmsted said. “Every time I got a notice that I was outbid on something, I was like, ‘Alright, let me go back and see what’s still available that’s in my price range.’ I felt like the extra time helped.”
Ludlam believes the PTSO auction was and will continue to be a valuable fundraiser for the Midtown community. While it may not have gone on as planned, it was still uniquely successful, Ludlam said.
“One of the things about the online auction that’s been great, despite the weather, is that it gave an opportunity for people who didn’t want to attend an in-person event or didn’t want to spend the money on a ticket for an in-person event,” Ludlam said. “It’s been really great to be able to get in front of everyone and for people to see what we’re doing and how we’re raising money, and it’s just easier access to more people.”
