You're About to be Redirected to the New Home of Ground Control to Major Mom: Hurlburt Spouses' Club Charity Auction

I just got home from the Hurlburt Spouses' Club Charity Auction. This year was the 25th year of the auction. The auction is the year's biggest fundraiser for the organization's scholarship fund.

Being that this was my first HSC auction experience, I didn't really know what to expect. All the ladies said "It's a really great time!" and they were right! I saw dozens of planning e-mails (I'm on the Spouses' Club board and I was privy to a lot of the planning information, although I wasn't on the committee this year) and heard dozens of stories of everything that goes into a successful auction. It was amazing seeing it all come together for a very successful evening.

A sampling of the items offered for auction. The framed items on the table are tickets to attractions (such as Disney World), a pair of plane tickets for any day/anywhere in the U.S. on Southwest Airlines, and several weekend getaways at area golf resorts and casino hotels.

Dave's Mom joined me tonight and she and I had so much fun! Seeing the team spirit at many of the tables and the crazy antics during some of the more creative auction items was great! (Such as the auction for the Wing Commander's family cooking dinner for the highest bidder -- which he then converted into TWO dinners and he turned one $500 bid into TWO $500 bids in an instant.) Above all, the generosity was phenomenal!

One of the part of the event is the "Decadent Dessert" auction. About 15 of the items are auctioned off early on in the program. The winner has the option to serve up the dessert right there at their table. Out of over 50 desserts, I was thrilled that my cake was one of the ones to be offered up for the tables.

Two boxes of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate cake mix. The icing? Are you ready for this? Whisk 12 oz. of heavy cream with 12 oz. of semisweet chocolate chips in a double boiler. After it's smooth, stir in 3 Tbsp. of Kahlua coffee liqueur.

I was tickled to see some of the first desserts bring well over $100! They were definitely worth it! The cake I made brought in $50 for the scholarship fund, but I will say that my cake plate was one of the less-elaborate ones. Many got into bidding wars just for the pretty holiday platters that some of the cakes were on.

Even though I had my heart set on only one thing -- a Keurig Elite coffee maker, which I won, yay -- it was thrilling to see the bidding wars on many of the bigger-ticket items: over $600 for a Gibson acoustic guitar signed by the members of Sugarland!

I'm looking forward to hearing how much money was earned for the scholarship fund, and I know the spouses are incredibly grateful for the donations from around the community -- actually, from around the country! My hats off to the ladies of the club who worked so hard to make this evening a success! I become more involved in the spring for our 2nd largest fundraiser: The Golf Scramble, which is scheduled in mid-April 2012!