ANNUAL SHS CABLE-TV AUCTION!
May 24th to May 27th on Channel 15 (Comcast) or 40 (Verizon)
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Family and Friends:
Support the hard-working creative students of the Swampscott High School TV Production Program!
Businesses & Organizations:
Donate by May 24th & receive a six-month ad on Comcast & Verizon in Swampscott, Nahant & Lynn!
New this year - We can add your logo/graphics to your ad!
Dear Potential Sponsor,
Each May, the Swampscott High School TV Production students produce a four-night auction, live on cable TV in Swampscott, Lynn and Nahant. It’s our main fundraiser, a great learning experience for my students and our most-watched event of the year.
We hope you’ll consider being a sponsor this year. The TV Production program at SHS is not in the school budget - instead, this annual auction allows us to be self-supporting. Any donation helps: auction items, gift certificates or cash.
Families and individuals receive a letter itemizing your tax-deductible donation to use for tax purposes. Business donors also receive a six-month advertisement on our station. We’ll create the ad for you or, if you have a web site, we’ll display graphics and information copied directly from your web site onto our station, in constant rotation.
To join in, please fax us the attached form or email me to receive a donor form by email. All we need now is your pledge - we’ll contact you to pick up your item and, for businesses, to help plan your ad. Let me know if you have any other questions and thank you again for your support of my students.
Tom Reid
Teacher of TV Production
(781) 596-8830 X5318
P.S. Please note that if you’re receiving a printed copy of this sponsor form, you can email me to receive the same form as an attachment if that’s more convenient for you.
The following is excerpted from the article in the current Swampscott Reporter.
SHS TV Production students are looking for sponsors for the 11th annual SHS-TV auction, to raise money for the TV Production program, which provides training and equipment each year for students who cover school and town events that they show on Channel 15 on Comcast in Swampscott and on Channel 40 on Verizon in Swampscott, Nahant and Lynn.
The auction will be seen live from 7 to 10 p.m. each night Monday through Thursday, May 24-27. Viewers will be able to bid by phone on items donated by businesses, artists, families and individuals from Swampscott and beyond.
“Everything comes down to the auction,” says Devyn Jaffe, a sophomore looking forward to her second auction. “It’s my favorite time of the year. It’s how we raise all our money, and I like that because it teaches us responsibility. We have to get it done or else we don’t get the equipment we need - but we do get it done. It’s so much fun.”
It’s fun to watch, too, according to Junior Ben Madigan-Fried, who says “This is my first year doing TV at Swampscott High School, but I’ve always watched the auction and taken part in it. My mother really gets into it because there really is so much great stuff to get. It’s always looked like something fun and I’m really excited to be involved this year.”
Mr. Reid says the success of the auction depends on the generosity of local people and businesses contributing items to be sold on-air. Those items range from sports and concert tickets through jewelry, paintings, gift certificates, electronics, collectibles and more.
Senior Casey Cann says, “The auction is a great situation that Mr. Reid has set up for us to fund the studio. We absolutely love it. I look forward to it all year.”
Mr. Reid says he does, too. “It’s become a tradition, a great way for students to get involved with adults in the community and to use all the skills they’ve been learning all year. It provides the structure within which we can publicize local businesses and organizations. And of course it makes all the difference in funding next year’s TV Production program.”
That seems to be what matters most to Junior Nick Smith, who says “we need to succeed, to keep the system going, because to the people in TV class, this studio is like a sanctuary.”
The students will take turns performing the technical jobs and co-hosting with teachers and members of local organizations. Senior James Duffy plans to work on the phone bank, taking calls from bidders seeking bargains. “The auction is awesome,” says Duffy. “It’s really fun talking to the people who are buying things and watching their bids go up on the big board.”
You will be able to download a sponsor form by logging on to the school website, www.swampscott.k12.ma.us, and clicking on the high school section or by going to www.swampscottpops.org, the website of the Patrons of Swampscott Performing Students.
You can also call Mr. Reid at 781-941-0007 or email him at .
All donors get receipts for the value of their donations for potential tax-deductible purposes. Businesses get even more: they get free ads on the station for six months seen by viewers in Swampscott, Lynn and Nahant. If the businesses don’t know how to create an ad for themselves, that’s not a problem, because the students can create it for them, Reid says.
A few of the items already pledged include Red Sox tickets from Bay State Tickets and Travel; a free appraisal of your collectibles by Gary Sohmers, who works as an appraiser for the PBS series “Antique Road Show”; a year of dance lessons from All About Dance; a year at A Performing Arts Academy; summer basketball camp; professional tooth bleeching by Drs. Rogers and Rogers; a weekend at a cottage in Maine; a vintage working 1950s radio; multiple paintings; massage certificates; jewelry and much more, including a robot! Local residents will again this year be able to follow the items put up for bid on Wicked Local Swampscott, the Web site of the Swampscott Reporter.
SWAMPSCOTT HIGH SCHOOL TELEVISION
AUCTION 2010 - SPONSOR INFORMATION
1) Please print the name of the business, organization, family or individual donor:
2) Please print your phone number:
3) Please print the name of the owner/authorized representative if applicable:
IF YOU WERE A SPONSOR LAST YEAR . . .
Check here if your address and email address are the same this year ____
Check here if your donation will be the same item and value this year ____
Check here if your ad should be the same this year ____
OTHERWISE, PLEASE FILL OUT THIS FORM:
4) Please print your address:
5) Please print your email address:
6) If you are making a cash donation, please enter the amount: ________
AND/OR
7) If you are donating items, services or gift certificates, please list them here:
DESCRIPTION OF AUCTION ITEM(S) ESTIMATED VALUE
8) If you would like a six-month ad on our cable station, please fill out the form on the back or check here if you’d like us to email you to get the wording of your ad later ____
Since this is a four-night auction, donating four items maximizes publicity during the auction. Please maintain minimum value of $25 per item. Estimated value should reflect lowest available price with all current sales. We accept used items in excellent condition. Items should not require expenditures - please offer cash value gift certificates rather than half-off certificates. Thank you.
• FAX this to 1-781-599-2034, give it to a Cable Club student, email it to or mail it to
Mr. Reid, Swampscott H.S., 200 Essex St., Swampscott, MA 01907
• Contact us anytime at (781) 941-0007 or
• Monetary donations: Please make checks payable to "Swampscott Public Schools"
Student use only: Name of Student Contact ______________________________________
Check as soon as: Item(s) Received ________ Ad Created ______ Tax Letter Sent ______
BUSINESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROVIDE MORE INFORMATION FOR YOUR TV AD?
Your ad will run for six months and will automatically include information
you’ve entered on the other side of the form (or in previous years), such as
* The name of your business or organization
* Your phone number, address and email address
Please fill this out if you’d like to give us more information for your ad
and/or
Check here if you’d like us to email you later on
to discuss the exact wording of your ad with you _____
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Besides your business name, address, phone number and email address, what else would you like us to include? Please fill out any of these that you’d like, but try to keep the total down to 20-30 additional words besides your name and address:
1) Web Site URL:
2) Your Hours:
3) Names of individuals (as in “Pete Quaife, Manager” or “Ask for Chris”):
4) Slogan or brief description of your products, services, new information for regular customers, etc. Please avoid comparative claims such as “we’re the best in town” – give factual information such as products, services, specialties.
5) We normally try to put your message up over a picture from your web site or, if not applicable, using some clip art and/or colorful backgrounds that seem appropriate. Any comments, requests or suggestions on this?
FAMILY AND INDIVIDUAL SPONSORS:
Instead of an ad, when we run our list of all the donors we’d like to thank, would you like us to add an additional comment of 10-15 words, such as “Congratulations to Rachel and the Class of 2010” or “Great job, Sean (our favorite host)” or “Good luck, Cable Club”? If so, please write it here: