Environmental school online auction under way

Campers on a hike at the Ferry Beach Environmental School. (Courtesy photo)

LEBANON - Ladies and gentlemen, start your computers!

The annual Ferry Beach Environmental School online auction has begun.

This year there are a wide variety of high-end items such as a skydiving package from Skydive New England, lift tickets at King Pine Ski Area and a rafting trip on the Kennebec or Penobscot rivers.

There’s also a host of restaurant dining coupons to bid on, from eateries all over the Seacoast as well as items from Salmon Falls Pottery and other fine shops.

Longtime Lebanon Elementary School fifth-grade teacher and auction organizer Mary Hammond said each year they look to raise $3,000-$4,000 from the auction, “but I always hope for more,” she said on Sunday just minutes before the auction was set to go live at noon.

She said it costs about $15,000 to send all the LES fifth-graders to the environmental camp. She said the individual cost per student for the four-day camp at Ferry Beach is about $200.

Hammond said the ecology school is part of the SELU science initiative, which stands for Science and Ecology Live and Unplugged. At the school students learn hands-on about the environment in local forests, marshlands and along our Maine coast.

LES fifth-graders have been participating in various ecology camp programs at Ferry Beach since 1991.

Once online bidders get to the site (http://www.les5th.org/auction) they’ll have to log in with their basic info and then answer a reply email to guard against spammers. Hammond said bidders’ personal information is absolutely never shared with anyone else.

Once that is completed, just bid away.

Hammond said bidders can either bid an amount on an item then check back occasionally, or they can bid and sign up for an email alert if they are outbid.

It’s all about having fun and raising money for the kids, Hammond said.

Hammond said once the bidding wars get going between friends and neighbors, “There’s usually some pretty good entertainment value” raised as well as lots of money.

Some of the featured items can be bid on all week, while others will remain open just for a day or two.

Hammond said in the past bidders from the Lebanon community have been very supportive and added that family and former fifth-graders from all over the country join in to raise the needed funds and get their EBay fix for a good cause.