Auction Event Gave Parent Connection Members Something To Crow About

By Shannon Hicks

The attendees — and especially the buyers — of the auction event The Rooster Review last weekend gave The Parent Connection something to crow about. A few days after the auction, the phone on Dorrie Carolan’s desk was ringing regularly with congratulatory calls from friends and supporters of The Parent Connection, the organization she and Donna DeLuca formed a few years ago to address the problems of substance use and abuse in Newtown.

On Monday afternoon when The Bee called The Gym at Newtown, where Ms Carolan works, she was sitting with Parent Connection co-founder Donna DeLuca. Both women were still elated over the results of Saturday’s fundraiser.

“Wasn’t it fun?” Ms DeLuca said. “We just had the best time.”

“The whole thing was fantastic,” Ms Carolan added. “The spirit, the warmth, the joy, and love that was in that room the other night. It was all so important to us.”

A cocktail and auction evening, The Rooster Review on April 29 offered patrons the opportunity to purchase from 26 lots. There were two dozen uniquely painted and decorated ceramic roosters, and two late additions. By Saturday afternoon there was a waiting list of at least 50 names who had hoped to purchase tickets at the last minute for the event, and by Saturday night after the final rap of Father Bob Weiss’s gavel, more than $14,000 had been raised for The Parent Connection.

The Rooster Review was the brainstorm of Roseanne Loring, a Newtown resident and a board member of The Parent Connection. The project is comparable to the CowParade events that started a few years ago in Zurich and have been offered around the world. Life-size sculptures of cows are sponsored by businesses, corporations and schools, and hand painted by regional artists. CowParade events have been presented in New York City, Chicago, Houston and even West Hartford. This summer a herd will make its way into Boston.

CowParade events offer public exhibitions of their painted sculptures, which are then followed by auctions to raise funds for local nonprofit organizations.

Following that pattern, organizers of The Rooster Review secured sponsorship for 24 life-size rooster sculptures and then matched each rooster with a local artist, who then put his or her artistic stamp onto the rooster. Businesses in town exhibited the roosters as they were finished being decorated by each artist for the past few months.

Newtown artist Donna Ball spent months carefully applying more than $700 worth of rhinestones to her rooster, creating “Razzle B. Dazzle.” Marilyn Doyle first put down a sky-blue background on her rooster, and then added a number of hot air balloons — familiar sights over the Newtown skies — in bringing “Chanticleer” to life.

Paul Meisel went with a French country palette when he painted his rooster, “Gluteus Maximus,” while David Merrill went with his familiar patriotic theme to bring “Newtown Forever” to life.

Mr Merrill’s rooster ended up being the top lot of the evening. A $1,200 bid had been left for the sculpture, but bidding escalated quickly for the final lot and the evening closed with the piece selling for $2,000.

Other top lots were “Sunflower Rooster,” painted by Liz Parsons, which sold for $1,525; and Michelle Rosenthal’s “Newtown’s #1 Barn Rooster,” which finished at $1,250.

Father Bob Weiss, the pastor of St Rose Church, was the auctioneer for The Rooster Review and he put a lot of enthusiasm into his efforts.

“The Parent Connection is a grassroots program,” he reminded everyone at the onset of the auction. “From out of suffering and tragedy comes a lot of good. I think we all realize that our community is in jeopardy because of this [drug abuse problem], and there is something we can do.

“This evening is not only to support The Parent Connection,” he continued, “it’s also to celebrate the good kids in this community, and there are a lot of them. Let’s celebrate them, and their parents.”

He also used a little bit of guilt — when bidding on the first lot seemed to stall immediately, Father Bob put down his gavel and mock chastised the crowd, “Do you people want to go to Heaven or not??!” — and a lot of humor to keep the evening as fun as planners had hoped it would be.

When auctioning Leslie Gunn’s “Van Gogh Rooster,” Father Bob urged the bidders “This is a great choice if you like blue… and it has both its ears.”

After opening at $100, Mrs Gunn’s painted work sold for $325.

Two roosters were added to the event just days before the auction. The Labor Day Parade Committee contacted The Parent Connection, said Ms Carolan, and offered them the Tercentennial Rooster. This was the ceramic rooster that made its first appearance during the Tercentennial Gala in January 2005 and then returned to serve as the cake topper when Tony Posca and crew from Andrea’s Pastry Shop created a larger-than-life Tercentennial Cake for last year’s Labor Day Parade.

Also, Parent Connection supporter Mona Steele contacted Peg Jepsen, who in turn spoke with her son, the sculptor Michael Jepsen, about donating one of his sculptures. Ticket-holders found Iron Rooster waiting for them when they entered the country club’s ballroom Saturday night.

The Tercentennial Rooster ended up selling for $200, and Mr Jepsen’s rooster went out the door at $425.

For those who could not get into the auction or were unable to attend, an 18- by 24-inch poster depicting the 24 Rooster Review sculptures debuted at the event and will continue to be sold around town. Part of the $20 selling price will also benefit The Parent Connection.

To view the poster or purchase it online, visit MyOwnTown.us. The website, operated by Newtown resident Trish Dardine, is also offering note cards that re-create the poster or feature the rooster of one’s choice.

 

Money In The Bank

With some more money for its coffer, The Parent Connection hopes to expand its staff and offerings.

“One big thing we’d like to do is get some help, a counselor who can help with treatment,” Donna DeLuca said Monday afternoon. “This is what Dorrie and I have been doing all along. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s also opened some doors for us. We want to bring in someone else who can help us make those connections between the people who need help and the help that they need.”

At the opposite end of getting help is what to do once a person has gone through a treatment program.

“People really need a lot of support with transitioning back,” said Ms DeLuca. “They can’t go back to their old lifestyle, of course, so what can they do?

“There’s a need for a young peoples’ group, prevention therapy. And that’s one of the things that we would love to do with that money,” she added.

Ms DeLuca and Ms Carolan are already planning Parent Connection forums for the 2006-07 season. They plan to open the season in September with a family dinner and workshops for all ages.

“People don’t necessarily come out when you use ‘drugs’ or ‘alcohol’ in the name of a forum, but if we can reach young families with ideas about strong parents, then they’re more apt to come out,” said Ms DeLuca. “And the message is all the same, really.”

Ms Carolan and Ms DeLuca plan to bring in a keynote speaker and a few speakers to lead short workshops for the September event. The keynote speaker will offer his or her lecture while everyone is still seated together, and then smaller workshops or discussions will be led following the full lecture.

“It will be for the whole family, with subjects and topics for the kids as well as their parents,” said Ms DeLuca.

Meanwhile, there is plenty for the two women to celebrate.

“The spirit of Saturday evening was so uplifting,” said Ms DeLuca. “We — Dorrie, the board members, and I — never discussed what we hoped to earn before the event. We didn’t really care about the profit. We cared to have a good time, and to celebrate life.”

In an email sent around to board members, Ms Carolan and Ms DeLuca said that Saturday had been more about the idea of being together, meeting more people, and raising awareness in a whole different way than it was about anything else.

“We just want to say Thank You to every single person who attended,” said Ms Carolan, as the phone on her desk began ringing again.