Photos by Kristin Fankhauser
The College of Nursing and Health Innovation at ASU held its first “Have a HeArt” silent auction Friday, benefiting the school’s four nurse practitioner health-care clinics across the Valley.
The auction, held downtown in the college’s Nursing and Health Innovation II building, sold local art and featured live music and a buffet, which were all donated to the event.
The college runs four nurse practitioner health-care clinics: one in Scottsdale, one in Tempe and two in Phoenix, including one at ASU’s Downtown campus near North Third and East Taylor streets, which is open to ASU students, faculty and staff, and to the public.
Associate Dean of Clinical Practice and Community Partnerships Denise Link said it was hard work attracting enough donations to run the fundraiser, but people’s interest in health care made it possible.
“It takes a lot of time to talk to people and get them involved, and to get them to buy into your vision,” Link said. “But, you know, health care gets to people. It touches their heart.”
This year’s event was a new take on an old fundraiser for the clinics. In prior years, ASU organized a similar auction called “Art for Health.”
Link said the last “Art for Health” event in May 2009 did not do well, which led to several changes. This year the school sold tickets for the first time at $25 each, the event happened in February rather than May, and catering was added to the event.
Link, who said previous fundraisers raised between $4,000 and $14,000 each year, could not estimate how this year’s event would fare, but she felt the changes were good ideas and thought this year’s event was generally successful.
“People put hundreds and hundreds of hours into this,” Link said to the crowd at the start of the event.
Tiffany Skall, owner of A-List Corporate Events & Catering, donated several tables of fruits, vegetables, desserts and drinks to the event. She said she was motivated to donate to a cause involving health care, which she feels is especially important in the current political climate.
“It’s something that’s definitely worth donating to,” Skall said. “Every once in a while you come across something that’s a really good cause and you want to make sure that that’s taken care of.”
Skall served on the event’s planning committee before deciding to donate her services.
Bidding on all artwork, even the pieces worth thousands of dollars, started at $5 in order to attract a wide range of patrons.
“We tried to have the bidding start low so everybody could come,” Link said. “It wasn’t just going to be this thing where you have a lot of high rollers come in. Even if students came, there would be something there that they could bid on.”
Contact the reporter at john.l.fitzpatrick@asu.edu
Contact the photographer at kmfankha@asu.edu
