The 2018 Stars Auction

Earlier this month, we held the 2018 Stars Auction. Seventy-five boarders crammed into the lounge of Walter Lamb Hall, waiting to bid their hard-earned “stars” on items ranging from a trip to a Renaissance Faire, to a murder mystery dinner, to an enormous basket filled with gourmet food and snacks.

Boarding students earn their stars throughout the school year for doing good deeds in our community — helping a friend, maintaining a super-clean room, doing an extra-great job during kitchen duty, etc. The average student earns around 15 stars per year, but some earn as many as 40.The auction was conceived to reward our boarding students for collecting stars, and it quickly became one of our most eagerly anticipated nights of the year thanks to the draw of the auction items/experiences, which are enthusiastically donated by dorm parents, teachers, and staff.

This year, the auction was a great success, with items taking in several hundred stars in bids. The highest single item, a murder mystery outing at the nearby Aaron Burr House B&B, was donated by Peter Martino, a dorm parent and our Theater Tech Director. It garnered 120 stars in a final bid (students can pool their stars to bid on the auction items). An experience like this dinner will likely become one of the winners' favorite memories of Solebury School.

However, the best item up for bids was the coveted "Lunch Like a Boss" package. A boarder could win this and enjoy lunch — whatever they wanted to eat, wherever they want to eat it — with five of his or her best friends, served by the Dean of Residence Life, which just happens to be me, so you can understand the bias.  

Bill Christy has worked at Solebury School for more than 20 years and teaches in addition to running our Residential Life program. He lives on campus with his family.