WILLIAMSBURG — Auctions can be an ideal means for raising money for different causes. But what if you’re bidding on something that’s a complete mystery, hidden inside a bag with no description other than that it weighs at least one pound?
For members of a local chapter of a venerable Masonic group, that’s just fine — because they know the money they’re raising will go to the Gazette’s Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund.
Every year, members of Bethlehem Chapter No. 24, a local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star — a fraternal organization for men and women formed in the U.S. in the 1850s — hold what they call a “Pound and Yard” auction. Meeting in Williamsburg’s Grange Hall, they bring in an item that weighs a pound or measures one yard in length.
But those items are tucked away in gift bags, so no one bidding on them knows what they are, save the people who brought them to the auction.
“But that’s what’s fun about it,” said Barbara Miller of Easthampton, a longtime member of the group. “You don’t know what you’re bidding on, but you know the money is staying local and going to a good cause.”
“Everyone wants children to have presents at Christmas,” Miller added.
Named after a former business manager at the Gazette, the Toy Fund began in 1933 to help families in need during the Great Depression. Today, the fund distributes vouchers worth $50 to families for each eligible child from age 1 to 14.
Miller says the Bethlehem Chapter No. 24, which dates to 1888 and was originally located in Northampton, has been raising money for the Toy Fund for over a decade.
This year, she said, they raised $300.
“Keeping the money local is important to us,” said Miller. She noted that she was raised by a single mother and the holidays could sometimes be pretty lean.
“We might get mittens or gloves, things that were necessary but maybe not that fun,” she said.
But members of Bethlehem Chapter 24 — there are about 35 people in the group, Miller notes — do have fun at their annual auction. Sometimes people bid on how attractive a bag is, she noted, since they don’t know what’s inside, and the gift-givers like to put quirky items inside.
She said another charitable group that adopted the same “Pound and Yard” auction recently auctioned off a box of brownie mix — for $65.
“We’ve definitely seen some strange things being auctioned off,” Miller said with a laugh. “But it’s all for a good cause.”
To be eligible for the Toy Fund, families must live in any Hampshire County community except Ware, or in the southern Franklin County towns of Deerfield, Sunderland, Whately, Shutesbury and Leverett, and in Holyoke in Hampden County.
The following stores are participating this year: A2Z Science and Learning Store, 57 King St., Northampton; Blue Marble/Little Blue, 150 Main St., Level 1, Northampton; Deals & Steals, 1 Pearl St., Northampton; High Five Books, 141 N. Main St., Florence; The Toy Box, 201 N. Pleasant St., Amherst; Once Upon A Child,1458 Riverdale St., West Springfield; Plato’s Closet, 1472 Riverdale St., West Springfield; Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters, 227 Russell St., Hadley; Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College St., Village Commons, South Hadley; The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 W. Bay Road, Amherst; World Eye Bookshop, 134 Main St., Greenfield; Holyoke Sporting Goods Co., and 1584 Dwight St. No. 1, Holyoke.
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.