Midsummer Silent Auction 2024

Make plans to attend this year’s upcoming Midsummer on June 15 to bid on auction items including various activities. They provide a fun, memorable experience to share with your friends and family. In addition to the silent auction, every year amazing live auction items have been offered. Louise Gately donated a week’s stay at her lovely condo in Del Ray Beach, Florida. Board member Joel Wurl and his wife Mary donated a 5-day stay in their home in California’s picturesque wine country.

2023 Fun Activities For Auction Winners

As Midsummer 2024 approaches, some of our silent auction winners have fun memories of experiences or activities they won at the auction in 2023. While there were many lovely baskets and pieces of art offered, activity items such as the following have become popular.

A potica-making party was hosted by Catherine Farley and was won by Barb Soderberg (left) who shared the fun with Kathy Siskar (right).

John and Denise Lindquist offered either maple syrup-making or apple cider-making. The winners were Bergetta and Mike Indihar, who chose a hearty day of making apple cider last fall.

Pie-maker Shelby Vaske not only donated her scrumptious pies to the auction but hosted a pie-making party.

Several groups of women have enjoyed this popular event over the last three years. Often boat rides have been auction items and last season Mickey White and Chuck Neil were the winners. Jack Roddy took friends of theirs out on his boat for a planned ride, baseball stories and picnic.

A new auction activity was ice fishing. Steve Bradach (front) welcomed winners Mark Kawell (left) and Barbara Levie (center) to his Ambush fish house on Lake Vermilion for an afternoon of ice fishing. Peter McGillivray (right) made chili for the group.

Also new in 2023 was an Actors Evening of script reading offered by Pete Pellinen and Karel Winkelaar from the Stages of the Range Players that was won by Mike and Bergetta Indihar. It is reported they had a hilarious time laughing with friends while reading the various character roles in the script.

Local businesses also donated experiences. Adventure Seaplanes gave a gift certificate for a seaplane ride and Your Boat Club in Tower donated an afternoon rental of a pontoon. Another popular activity was a round of golf for four, donated by the Wilderness Golf Course.

The grand prize in 2023 was a week’s stay at a chalet in the French Alps. It was donated by Elizabeth Furrh and her husband Sean whose parents were longtime supporters of Midsummer. Winners were David and Sandy Wallin, Mary Batinich, Mike Skorich, George and Terry Skorich and Carol and Jim O’Connor.

This year we will again have auctioneer extraordinaire, Steve Solkela, generating excitement and leading the spirited bidding.