An auction to benefit St. Mary School, Rome, hosted by the Parent Teacher Organization, grossed approximately $140,000.

The sold-out event was held at Georgia Highlands College’s Lakeview Auditorium. The theme was a New Orleans extravaganza, as if Mardi Gras erupted in the facility, with vignettes of Bourbon Street. Guests wore masquerade masks adorned with feathers. Festivities included a Cajun dinner, a parade of Mardi Gras floats, and beads thrown to the crowd.

Among the night’s activities were a silent auction, a sealed bid auction, a live auction for large-ticket items, and a reverse raffle drawing with a grand prize of $10,000. Up for bid were items worth over $100,000 donated by the Rome community, including stays at vacation homes, local camps and activities, fine jewelry, trophy hunting expeditions, NCAA football packages, and elaborately themed parties being sold in the live auction.

Attendees could also bid on over 300 baskets and certificates. A “Raise the Paddle” campaign at the end of the night garnered over $10,000 from the crowd to be put toward security updates at the PK3 through eighth-grade school.

The reverse raffle grand prize was split by the last two couples drawn, Greg and Kelley Abbott of Rome and William and Frances Alt of Lookout Mountain.

Kimberly Prusakowski, in her second year as auction chairperson, said the strong support from St. Mary’s Church, the school parents and alumni, and the community was key to the auction’s success.