CIVIC CENTER TO HOLD AUCTION, WINE-TASTING BENEFIT

The Cape Girardeau Civic Center has provided for the community, and now it needs the community to provide for it.

The Civic Center will hold its second silent auction and wine-tasting benefit at the Holiday Inn Convention Center June 20 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The benefit is to raise money for children's activities at the Civic Center.

"The Civic Center really needs a lot of community support to survive," said Dr. Irene Ferguson, chairperson of the fund-raising committee. "The programs at the Civic Center serve the youth of the community, and the available funds just aren't that much."

Admission to the event will be $15 per person and $25 per couple. There will be a silent auction followed by wine and cheese tastings. Ferguson said there also will be a voice auction emceed by former television meteorologist Don McNeely. There also will be a jazz trio.

Ferguson said there are only gift certificates available for auction so far. Last year the Downtown Merchants Association donated several items, and she looks for that to happen this year.

Everybody involved is volunteering time for the event to help support the Civic Center.

After-school programs at the center provide tutoring and recreational activities for children from the first grade to high school. Other programs such as the Rolling Readers and a dance class put on by the Katherine Dunham Dance Company and sponsored by Southeast Missouri State University provide something to do for children when they are not in school.

Volunteers, many of them education majors at Southeast Missouri State University, make up most of the staff at the Civic Center.

To continue the programs, Ferguson said money is needed from fund raisers. Last year the silent auction raised $3,000, and Ferguson hopes to exceed that amount this year.

"The center has survived before because of the community," she said. "We've been on an uphill struggle the past few years, but things are getting better."

She said the best way for people to help right now is to attend the benefit. "We're looking for participation in the event," she said. "Anyone is welcome."