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International Night Tops Rotary Year

by Rob Clark

Cuisine from around the world; buckets of fun; live entertainment; and all the Rotary camaraderie that a person can handle in one night. It's all wrapped into one glorious evening hosted by the Rotary Club of Bay City each October. It's called International Night.

Started in 1993 as a modest fund raiser for the club, International Night has turned into a community event not to be missed. Today, hundreds of club members and local guests attend the event and help the club raise more than $30,000 in one night for its major projects.

In recent years, the annual event has been held at the DoubleTree Hotel & Conference Center in Downtown Bay City. The evening begins with a social hour, during which time guests are treated to live entertainment, sample top-notch wine and beer from around the world, and have a chance to bid on nearly 200 silent auction items. Each year a new theme is selected for the event. Past themes have included "The World is your Canvas", "Rotary's Wide World of Sports", "Sing For Your Supper", and "Happy 100th Birthday Rotary!" The first International Night event was held at Bay Valley Hotel & Resort in Frankenlust Township. The fund raiser was later moved to Saginaw Valley State University. In each case, the evening's events were highlighted by a silent auction, various raffles, and delicious international cuisine. The focus has always been on the food.

In the early years of the event, librarians working for the Bay County Library System were charged with researching different foods from four countries or regions of the globe. In 1993, for example, the featured food was native to Hawaii, Alaska, Israel and Switzerland. The Alaskan menu included crab puffs, Yukon Jack beef, and goose with wild blueberry sauce. From Hawaii came smoked pork with guava sauce, mahi mahi with pineapple butter, and lime pie. Lox with cracked olives and caviar topped the selections from Israel, and Swiss steak, Swiss cheese fondue and Swedish meatballs made up the menu from Switzerland. In recent years, the club has relied on the on-site chefs to come up with a smorgasbord of goodies. A few years ago, the chefs hoisted the flags of New Zealand, Sweden, France and Brazil to find inspiration for the menu. The cuisine included braised lamb shanks, salmon with pickled cucumbers, coq au vin, and churrasco, a carved flank steak much like barbecue. Although fun, food, and follies rule the evening, the underlying purpose of the event has always been to raise money. In the early days, around $10,000 was raised for charities like Camp Rotary, Catholic Family Services, the Literacy Council of Bay County, YWCA Camp Meadows, and more. Today, the event raises between $30,000 and $35,000 annually.

During the past 10 years, money raised at International Night has funded club's major projects, which are commitments to pledge up to $250,000 over 5 years for a major community project. The first major project was the Young Adult Outreach Librarian Program of the Bay County Library System. The second 5-year project was a commitment to fund two Bay City beautification projects. First on the list was a $100,000 pledge to the Bay City Downtown Development Authority to create at least two pocket parks in the downtown area. [The club was actually able to fund three such parks.] The parks include historical vignettes, glass-etched images mounted on metal kiosks, showing how the land near the park looked 100 years ago, along with some background information. The remainder of the money, $150,000, was donated to help with renovations and landscaping of the historic Pere Marquette Railroad Depot.

Much of the money raised at International Night comes from the sale of items in the silent and live auctions. Items on the auction block in the past have included tickets to Michigan or Michigan State football games, a stay at a condo on Grand Cayman Island, and various hotel stays and golf packages. A significant portion of the money raised comes from corporate and patron sponsorships of the event. Sponsorship opportunities range from $175 to $5,000 and include recognition at the event and tickets for the evening program.

Click to View 2012 Invitation PDF

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Auctions and Donation Teams

Starting in 2012 the International Night committee formed teams that will collect donation items for the auction and will sell tickets to the event.

Each Team will have a captain and a theme. Besides auction items, each team will put together some king of theme "basket" to be auctioned off in place of the former "Bucket of Fun".

According to Rob Clark: "We want all club members to take part in helping out with this year's auction. They are invited to seek out a team captain and sign up for a team. Captains also will be seeking out club members to fill their teams." Team captains have already begun recruiting members.

• Sports: Brenda Rowley
• Outdoor: Kim Prime
• Locally Produced Items: Eric Jylha
• Family: Kevin Ayala
• Spa/Makeover: Trish Coonan
• Children: Rob and Claire Clark
• Art: Chris Girard
• Wind/Food: Jenna Schrumpf
• Guilty Pleasures: Bob and Cindy Chadwick
• USA: Dee Dee Wacksman

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Auctions and Donation Information

Sponsor Return Form PDF         Auction Donation Guidelines PDF         Auction Donation Form PDF

Silent and live auctions are a huge part of International Night. These auctions, along with the 50/50 tickets and sponsorships raise funds that Rotary uses for projects in the community.

Your donations of auction items are very important. If you have items, please download the 2012 Auction Donation Form PDF and print it out. In the meantime, here are some guidelines for Rotarians who may be soliciting auction items:

• Please ask early. Pulling off this event is a BIG job that Rotarians do in their “free” time. Please start asking now. The later the items come in, the more difficult it is for volunteers to properly catalog, pick up, and print promotional materials for auction items. The committee chairs are already looking a little stressed, so they don’t really need any more excitement. We’d have a great auction if every club member took responsibility (for donating or securing a donation) for just 2 items.
  
  
• Please fill out everything on the donation form. Contrary to popular belief, if we didn’t need to know all of this stuff, we wouldn’t ask. We don’t like filling out forms either, but sometimes you just gotta do it.
  
  
• In general, we ask that a donated item have a value of at least $25. Items that appeal to women, men, and children, as well as items with general appeal are all good.
  
  
• For donated goods, we prefer NEW items unless the item is an antique, highly collectible, or has a significant “used” value. Some big ticket items do have good value used—such as high quality artwork, electronics, cameras, and estate jewelry— provided they are in excellent condition.
  
  
• Services usually come in the form of a gift certificate, which is good. Gift certificates for goods, however, (e.g. a store gift certificate good for $25 in merchandise) rarely sell for more than face value. The actual item has greater appeal. Consider asking the donor if he/she minds if we purchase an item with the gift certificate, and then auction the purchased item. If it’s OK for us to do this, please note it on the donation form.
  
  
• Smile. You’re doing something great for Rotary and your community, and we appreciate your help.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Diamond Sponsor - $5,000 and above
As a Diamond Sponsor you will receive special sign recognition a the event, acknowledgement in pre-event promotions and materials, and listing in the event program. Sponsorship at the Diamond level includes 16 admission tickets with fair market value of $832.

Platinum Sponsor - $1,000
As a Platinum Sponsor you will receive special sign recognition a the event, acknowledgement in pre-event promotions and materials, and listing in the event program. Sponsorship at the Platinum level includes 8 admission tickets with fair market value of $416.

Gold Sponsor - $750
As a Gold Sponsor you will receive special sign recognition a the event, acknowledgement in pre-event promotions and materials, and listing in the event program. Sponsorship at the Gold level includes 6 admission tickets with fair market value of $312.

Silver Sponsor - $550
As a Silver Sponsor you will receive special sign recognition a the event, acknowledgement in pre-event promotions and materials, and listing in the event program. Sponsorship at the Silver level includes 4 admission tickets with fair market value of $208.

Bronze Sponsor - $350
As a Bronze Sponsor you will receive special sign recognition a the event, acknowledgement in pre-event promotions and materials, and listing in the event program. Sponsorship at the Bronze level includes 2 admission tickets with fair market value of $104.

Patron Sponsor - $175
As The Patron level is a perfect way for individuals or couples to become sponsors. Patrons receive sign recognition at the event, a listing in the event program and 2 admission tickets with fair market value of $104.

Individual Admission Ticket - $65
Fair market value of $52.

For more information: send e-mail to InternationalNight@RotaryBayCity.org