Will Bring Great Grins & Big Bids At Annual Auction

By Shannon Hicks

What has 736 ears, lots of missing teeth, and tells silly jokes?

Laughing Chairs and Tables, of course.

Donna Ball is leading a group of Head O’ Meadow moms — parents of students at Head O’ Meadow School — in creating what may be the marquee lot when the Head O’ Meadow PTA hosts Spring Into Auction on March 26. The event is open to all, and items will range from theme baskets and gift certificates to travel packages and unique items created just for the annual fundraiser.

The auction always features a number of goods, services, gift certificates, and the like, but the Head O’ Meadow event also makes sure to include a class project each year. This year, Ms Ball came up with the laughing chairs and tables — furniture that has been covered with photos of children laughing.

Five chairs and five tables have been acquired from a few different sources, and the committee is turning the pieces into new items that will be the focus of conversation in any home or office they find their way into following next weekend’s auction.

To begin, the mismatched chairs and tables were all sanded down and then painted black. Meanwhile, Ms Ball and Chi Ryder took photos of every Head O’ Meadow student. Kindergarten through fourth grade, the children were photographed — sometimes wearing silly hats, always in front of a plain white backdrop — after they had begun laughing at a silly joke they had been told.

“Other moms came and read the jokes while we took the pictures,” Ms Ball said during a work session at the Boggs Hill Road elementary school last week. “That was such a great joy. We captured more than 300 beautiful faces.”

Jokes were classic, child-friendly offerings (Why don’t blind people like to skydive? Because it scares the dog), and the women found themselves giggling again while they were working on the furniture pieces last week.

On March 11, Ms Ball was joined by Ginny Bloomquist, Jen Meyer, Kim Pollard, Diane Savinelli, and Laura Terry for a session of cutting and gluing. The photos had been taken, converted into 2½-by-2½-inch black and white images, and printed onto heavy stock paper. They were being cut out, and then applied with glue to a chair or table. To cover the surface of each table as well as the seat, back, and arms of each chair, each child’s photo is appearing two to three times on each piece of furniture.

As each piece is finished, it is then getting a coating of clear varnish.

Each grade is being represented with its own chair and table. The pieces will be displayed during parent-teacher conferences at the school in the days leading to the auction.

While Ms Ball is credited by the group with the idea for the furniture, she in turn credits her son with the idea to add the jokes that were used to elicit the laughter to the furniture.

“Miles said we should add that to the design and I thought it was brilliant,” Ms Ball said of her 9½-year-old son’s idea to print the jokes on black paper in white type. The jokes have also been collaged in among the photos adorning each table and chair.

Laura Terry, with Marianne Grenier, is the co-chair of the auction itself.

“We’re trying to raise $10,000 this year,” Ms Terry said, “which will go into the PTA budget. Anything above that will go to Head O’ Meadow’s PE department to purchase an interactive system Coach [Steven] Dreger saw at a recent convention and would like to get for the school.”

Also Up For Bid

In addition to the “laughing furniture,” auctions items will include a 10–12-foot tree and its planting, courtesy of Dan Holmes Fine Gardens; dinner for six at The Blue Ribbon in Manhattan, the flagship restaurant owned by the Bromberg family of Newtown; a catered BBQ for up to ten people from The Cookhouse in New Milford and a ladies’ night for ten at Proud Mary’s in Newtown, both courtesy of the Ryder family.

Additional items include Disney World Park Hopper passes, golf packages from Newtown Country Club and Rock Ridge Country Club, dumpster rental from Associated Refuse, as well as one year of garbage pickup, also from Associated Refuse (“Those two items have typically been among our most popular,” shared Ms Terry), a ride to school in a fire truck courtesy of Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Company, and birthday party and camp packages.

“We will probably have 100 items, some solo and many packaged together,” said Ms Terry.

By the way, for the record the women said that the favorite joke among the children while they were working on the photography phase of the project was this one:

Why do gorillas have such big nostrils?

Because they have big fingers.

Spring Into Auction will be held in The Alexandria Room at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street. Tickets are $45, which include hors d’oeuvres, drinks and desserts, and reservations are strongly recommended.

Contact Marianne Grenier at 203-426-6590 or CoolGrenier@yahoo.com or Laura Terry, 203-426-7743.