Terry Vollum
For PostMedia
STIRLING – The Big Day has a way of sneaking up on us and shopping for gifts can often take up most of your last-minute, rushing around time. But here is some good news for the Early Bird Christmas shopper; if you have access to the Internet, you have the opportunity to greatly reduce the number of hours otherwise spent frantically dashing from store to store. Here’s the scoop: Once again Stirling Rotary is hosting an incredible online auction featuring a wide variety of terrific items you can snap up as Christmas presents for those all-but-impossible-to-buy-for people on your Christmas list. Or you might want to grab a little something for yourself. All from the comfort of wherever you feel most comfortable while surfing the net. “This will be our tenth online Christmas auction,” explained Stirling Rotarian and auction organizer, Laurie Osborne, “and it gets bigger and better every year…what we hear most often is how impressed people are with the quality and the unbelievable variety of items up for bids.”
The Stirling Rotary online Christmas auction site is a little different from most other shops you’ll find in cyberspace and likely a whole lot more fun. The wide assortment of unique gift items is far too extensive to list but here is just a sampling. You can bid on a pair of premium tickets to a Toronto Maple Leafs game, or a beautiful gift basket from World’s Finest Chocolate, plus gift certificates and gift cards for local cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, the Pro One Stop, the LCBO and Lyman’s Landscaping. As well, you’ll find men’s and ladies snowshoes, lots of kids’ stuff, great merchandise from Maple Dale Cheese and The Buff Stuff Store, along with family passes to Farmtown Park and a fabulous airflosser from Stirling Dental. And for the golfer on your Christmas list there are green-fee passes for most area golf courses. And if you happen to be planning to build your very own putting green, you can bid on a load of topsoil. You won’t find such a wide variety of items in any one store. But you will find it on the Stirling Rotary Online Christmas Auction website. Please see the link below. This year the Stirling Rotary Online Christmas Auction goes ‘live’ at 5:00 p.m. Friday Dec. 1 and runs until noon, Friday Dec. 10.
Aside from the thrill of participating in a virtual auction, you’ll have that warm feeling that you are helping to support the good work of Stirling Rotary. And that’s because all proceeds from the Christmas online auction stay in the neighbourhood to support the Stirling Community Cupboard (Food Bank) and their Christmas Food & Toy Drive – a long-standing annual campaign that ensures no child will go without a Christmas gift and that all needy families in Stirling-Rawdon will enjoy a Christmas dinner with all the fixings. And even though you’ll find Stirling Rotary’s online Christmas Auction on the World Wide Web, it’s really just a friendly neighbourhood shop – not unlike an old time General Store, filled with marvellous items generously donated by your good-hearted neighbours. “We certainly appreciate how fortunate we are to be living in such a caring community,” said Osborne, as she sorted through and continued to add items to the auction site, then added, “Our auction line-up is this impressive and unique thanks to the generosity of many Stirling area businesses and of course the tremendous support we get from our friends over Campbellford way.”
So don’t forget; the Stirling Rotary Online Christmas Auction goes ‘live’ at 5:00 p.m. Friday Dec. 1 and runs until noon, Friday Dec. 10. Here’s how to get there:
www.airauctioneer.com/23stirlingrotarychristmas
For additional details, and last-minute surprises, Osborne suggests a visit to the Stirling Rotary Club Facebook page.