St. Bede auction reaches historic half million

Fund-A-Need goal reached, Abbey Church repairs to begin

The 38th Annual St. Bede Auction, “Just Imagine,” became a reality on Saturday night.

The Perino Science Center was home to the first St. Bede fundraising event since the pandemic began in 2020. With just more than 100 people in the room, every goal was achieved making for another historic night for the academy. St. Bede in Peru also exceeded its Fund-A-Need goal of $205,000, to repair all the skylights in the Abbey Church. A detailed video was shared describing how vital the building is to the community and the visible damage and repairs needing to be done.

With a lead gift of $15,000 from the Miller Group Charitable Trust, Angelo Perino ’80 offered to match the lead gift if another person in the room joined him, and a paddle was raised. From that level on, paddles were raised high from the $10,000 to $250. At the $2,500 level Peru Federal Savings Bank and Mrs. Joan Perona offered to match up to $5,000 each to reach $10,000. At the $1,000 level, Dr. Michael ’73 and Mrs. Allison (Hebel) ’78 Rooney challenged 10 people in the room to raise their paddles to reach their match of $10,000 and match they did as the auctioneer yelled out numbers from at least 20 paddles in the air at the $1,000 level.

Several times during the evening the St. Bede family strived to reach the goal needed in order to start work on the Abbey Church in July. As the live auction was concluding and it was announced the Fund-A-Need was $30,000 shy of its goal, two donors agreed to donate half, if those in the room could raise the other half. With Abbot Philip Davey at the front of the room, paddles started to raise once again until the goal was reached and the group broke out in applause.

“The generosity from our St. Bede family was incredibly moving Saturday night,” Davey said. “We are truly blessed with the out pouring of generosity and our hearts are full knowing our beloved Abbey Church will be repaired.”

Once again, mobile bidding was a success with participants bidding from near and far.

“The ability to mobile bid has truly impacted the auction, especially during the pandemic,” said Bonnie Prokup, auction and special events manager. “Every year it gets better and better, and everyone loves how easy it is and that anyone can be involved, no matter where you are.”

Some highlights from the live auction included an exclusive Silver Oak Package donated by David and Kary Duncan, which sold for $11,000, and a Rich Harvest Farms package which sold three times and was generously matched by Jerry Rich.

Quite the hit this year was the introduction of the Mega Raffle and the Jayco Motorhome which added to reaching the $500,000 net figure. Favorites that returned were the Bedan Bonanza and St. Bede’s Golden Ticket.

Director of Mission Advancement Julia Yaklich said all numbers indicate that St. Bede have well netted more than $500,000 and that it was a historic night for St. Bede.

“Not even a pandemic can shake a 130-year foundation.” Yaklich said. “We are deeply grateful to all those on campus, on-line and on their phone Saturday night and all those that donated to St. Bede.”