Hope Lions members raised $38,035 in last year's auction at Hope's Fair Park Coliseum. Photo by Mark Ross.

At this year’s 73rd annual Hope Lions Club Christmas auction, bidders who come to the Hope Coliseum in Fair Park can choose from hundreds of items offered by merchants and industries in the Southwest Arkansas area.

Starting on Thursday, December 1, three evenings of auctions will start at 6:00 p.m. and run until 10:00 p.m. Thursday and Friday.  On Saturday the third, the auction will start at 6:00 p.m. and will go until the last item is sold.

Among the items donated to be sold during this time:

• Barbecue grills and fire pits

• Freezers

• Speakers

• Items from Klipsch, Inc.

• Vacation getaway packages

• Turf grass

• Potting soil and tree bark

• Metal roofing

• Household items and home décor

• Gift certificates from restaurants in Southwest Arkansas.

• Forty to sixty hams and turkeys

Several local business people will take turns as auctioneers.

During the auctions, children can busy themselves decorating a Christmas tree while their parents and older siblings survey the items on display and make bids. The Evening Lions club will operate its concession stand and will sell the pies for which it is already famous.

Lions member and publicity chair of the event Mark Ross said the last nights of these auctions can go until 1:00 a.m.

Auction chair Milko Smith said that to match last year’s record total of proceeds will be a challenge, but he is making every effort this year to catch the Lions’ 2021 total of $38,035.50 raised. Smith said the effort has attracted 200 sponsoring organizations.

The funds raised go to a number of things the Lions Club normally does, (including, as Ross said, “help for the homeless, assistance to victims of house fires, eyeglasses and eye surgeries, hearing aids, diabetes help, diabetes awareness, life-skills training for sight-impaired people”) but primarily gift baskets, really gift boxes as Ross put it, of groceries and other items to go to needy families in the Southwest Arkansas area just in time for the holidays.

Smith said that he is looking forward to the get-together of people in the Coliseum as the auction opens. “We're hoping for a good crowd. Usually, from what I've seen, you have a lot of regulars that are there pretty much every year. Hopefully, we can get out and get some new ones coming out as well as those who've been faithful to the auction for years . . . it's kind of like a reunion of sorts.”

If you still would like to donate an item to the auction, the form for doing so is below. You can also contact Lion Mark Ross at [email protected].