The weather outside may have been grey and chilly Saturday, but inside the North Webster Community Center everyone was smiling and having a good time during the annual Heart of the Community Auction.

Over 1,600 tickets were sold for the Heart of the Community Charity Auction and the gym was packed as people enjoyed dinner from Sleepy Owl, bid on the items in the silent auction and visited with friends as they waited for the live auction to get started.

Rev. Jeff Boyer and Brock Thornsbrough were manning the doors, taking people’s tickets. They reported people were lined up to get inside at 3:50 p.m. when doors didn’t even open until 5 p.m.

This year the auction held a few changes. Three sides of the gym were used for the silent auction instead of other classrooms, and the mezzanine was used for extra seating. A community center volunteer was sent up with a flag to alert auctioneer Brian Wurthrich from Hahn Auctioneers about bids.

Volunteers Carolyn Rozow and Gina Sparks were in competition with Dave and Barb Currie to see who could sell the most rolls of raffle tickets. Attendees could purchase raffle tickets by the arm length for $10 with a deal of three arm-lengths at $25. “I love doing this,” Dave said, as he measured out several arm lengths of tickets. “I’d have even more (sales) if I wasn’t so dang bashful.”

Raffle winners were:

• Stephanie Stuckey, winner of $1,000
• Glen Atkinson, winner of the pop-up camper
• LaMar Davis won the pontoon
• Lou Moore and Nathan Ousley each won 50-inch televisions
• Fotine Haubenreiser won the $250 50/50 drawing
• Carolyn Baker won the $500 50/50 drawing

For more in-depth coverage and more photos from Saturday night’s event, see this week’s issue of The Mail-Journal.