2011 Ford School Charity Auction raises $11,000 for Detroit-based refugee organization

The Ford School community—at its 14th annual Charity Auction—raised $11,000 for Freedom House Detroit, a refugee organization helping those seeking legal asylum in the United States and Canada.

The Ford School Charity Auction is a student-led initiative that raises money for a different non-profit organization each year. The auction committee solicits donations from members of the Ford School community and local merchants and then hosts a gala at which the items are bid on in both live and silent auctions.

Over 270 people attended the Casablanca-themed event held at the Ann Arbor Kensington Court Hotel on April 2. Auction items ranged from fun and fancy to interesting and unbelievable. A sample of auctioned-off items includes: private tennis lessons, dinner at the Earle with Alan Deardorff, a field trip to go curling in Detroit, seats at the faculty poker game, a lesson in how to shoot a firearm, a suite at a Detroit Pistons basketball game, and "life changing brownies." The highest bid prize—bringing in $1,000—was a last-minute entry item from the Freedom House Detroit: a home cooked African dinner at their facility in Detroit.

The Freedom House Detroit, founded in 1983, is a temporary home for survivors of persecution from around the world seeking legal asylum. It is the only agency in the U.S. that provides all services needed by those fleeing persecution in their home country including food and shelter, legal and social services, education and job training, transitional housing, and public education.