On Sunday, July 17th, Ann Daniels & Patrick Dyer and I (Ann Katz) took off on another book project adventure. We were chosen as Silent Auction partner for an A’s game. The silent auction is held on a weekend when the team is home; basically autographed memorabilia is auctioned off and the money raised benefits a designated charity. All proceeds would be donated to the East Bay Children’s Book Project. We could have a table and pass out information to the fans about the Project.
We were greeted by the ultra organized Detra Paige who provided us with tickets, parking passes and MC Hammer Bobbleheads. We had a table and exactly three chairs. She actually came back to check on us several times and was almost as excited as we were as we watched the auction results.
I had visions of running the auction and signed up for cell phone Visa donations. So we were surprised when we got there and found these wonderful ladies all set up to handle the auction. They were a couple of retired teachers (we run the world, you know) who worked all the home games and had this auction down to a science.
Then we got to meet their customers. These people were adamant collectors who competitively bid for the items they wanted. But they had to wait until the second out of the 5th inning so they had time to talk to us, learn about our program and make donations.
It was an amazingly easy and profitable fundraiser. The fans were amazingly supportive. The A’s won 9 to 1. And, best of all, we are invited back next year.
We are moving to the Recreation Center at Mosswood Park, 3612 Webster St., Oakland, CA 94609. For the first time, we will have our own space and handy storage. There is a parking lot and free parking in the neighborhood. It should be a fabulous location for us. We are very excited.
Our first work day is scheduled for Saturday, July 23rd at 9 AM. Please join us if you have time.
We plan to reopen on Tuesday, August 16th.
We got an email Tuesday night telling us that we had won Citizen of Tomorrow and inviting us to the award dinner at Terra Gallery in San Francisco. So Fern & I got dressed up and drove over to the city. As we drove up, we were greeted by a large contingent of valets rushing to open our door and help us out of the car. WOW! What were we in store for? We walked up the ramp and into a large, beautifully decorated room.
At the registration desk, we got a fabulous greeting. “You are our honored guests. We are so pleased to meet you. Thank you so much for the great work you are doing. We loved your video. You are sitting at table 10 with the other award winners and members of our staff.”
We walked into a lovely cocktail party with scores of waiters offering us wine and hors d’oeuvres. They also had a full bar which was wasted on the two of us. Then we sat down to a delicious catered dinner and speeches. The first speaker was Liza Frazier, President and CEO of Bay Citizen, the online newspaper that held the competition. She spoke about their amazing success their first year and about how they were celebrating with this event. The first award, the Citizen of the Year, went posthumously to Bill Patterson, an investor, philanthropist and environmentalist, who tragically passed away at the 
age of 48.
The next award, Citizen of Tomorrow, went to EBCBP. After showing the video and presenting us with a plaque and a check for $5000, I was invited to speak. I spoke briefly about how grateful we were for the money and how gratifying the book project has been. Then I spoke about how we could work together to get the word out and help us expand to other areas.
There was an after party with a DJ and food trucks downstairs. Fern & I felt it was a little loud and were ready to leave when staff grabbed us and said we had to be introduced. So they stopped the entire party and had everyone clap for us! This was our Queen for the Day moment for those of you old enough to remember the very 
first reality TV show.
We are very grateful to everyone at Bay Citizen and all of you who voted for us. And a giant thank you to Robin Jolin for generously sharing the photos with us
