On Friday, December 6th, The Arc of the Ozarks held the 24th Annual Christmas Extravaganza. This event is a dinner gala with silent and live auctions. All the proceeds from this fundraising event go to Rivendale. Rivendale is an alternative school setting for children with learning difficulties or autism. Rivendale’s child-centered approach focuses on fostering positive emotional growth, increasing academic, language, and behavioral competencies, and enhancing each student’s natural strengths.
The 220 individuals attending Christmas Extravaganza enjoyed a delicious meal. Entertainment was provided by Shaun Munday, the Wings of Swing Big Band and a special performance by the Missouri State Beartones. The evening was held at the Bass Pro White River Conference Center with Francis Watson, KSPR multimedia journalist as the emcee.
Again, this year, the auction was mobile friendly, utilizing an online bidding platform called BidPal. Individuals placed bids through their phones and individuals who could not attend the event were able to bid. The auction included over 130 silent auction packages from businesses around the Ozarks and 12 live auction items including jewelry from Maxon’s Diamond Merchants, a getaway to St. Lucia and a Springfield Date Night package with tickets to Hello Dolly on Valentine’s Day. The silent and live auction alone raised $15,000 adding to the final total of just over $48,000 raised for the students of Rivendale.
The night also honored several special groups of people who help to make our community better, the Community Partner of the Year, Person of the Year and Guardian of the Year. The Arc Community Partner of 2019 was Jordan Valley Health Center for their work with our Cornerstone Psychology Clinic. The Esser Family was honored as the Guardian of the Year on behalf of our Residential Program. Glenn Rosser received the award for Person of the Year for his work creating and cultivating the Open Buddy Bass Tournament the past three years.
The evening concluded with selecting the winner of the $25,000 Room Transformation sponsored by Witt Custom Homes. The winner Ruth Shirk will receive a $25,000 remodel for a chosen room in her home. Nearly 400 tickets were sold for this first-year raffle.
Guests enjoyed a night of holiday celebration for a good cause. Thank you to Family Pharmacy and Alps Pharmacy as well as all of our table sponsors and donors that made this event successful. The 24th Annual Christmas Extravaganza is set for Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020.
