Year 'round giving for decades

As the season of giving comes to a close, there is someone in town who keeps that spirit going all year long, auctioneer John Gerrells.

Starting in 1993, there were eight high school boys who had been selected to go to the Down Under Bowl in Australia.

Donations were getting pretty hard to come by to send that many young men for a once in a lifetime football game.

Gerrells was friends not only with the boys, but with their parents as well and the idea of a dinner and "slave auction" came up.

In the meantime, Gerrells read an article where a FFA group had held a cookie jar auction to raise money and it had been an instant hit. The ladies working on the dinner and auction took the idea and ran with it.

"We didn't think eight cookie jars were going to make much," Gerrells said, "but I wasn't sure 50 cookie jars were going to sell."

Happily, they did, and close to $4,000 was raised that night.

And the cookie jar auction was born.

Gerrells averages four cookie jar auctions a year, donating his time and talents to help those who need a little boost, either for medical expenses or just about anything when times are tough.

It started out with just cookie jars, but soon tea pots, baskets and all manner of donations were added to the list of auction items.

While Gerrells said he doesn't find it important to keep track of how many he's done or how much money has been raised, one sticks out in his mind as the biggest event, the auction held for Peggy Shaffer, which raised $60,000 in one night.

"They're all special," he said. "We've never had a failure."

One of the things he's noticed over the years are the number of people who have had cookie jar auctions in their own names, then when they're back on their feet, they're at every auction, paying back the generosity shown by the town.

The other thing is the number of cookie jars that get "recycled" through the auctions.

"I swear, we've sold that goose cookie jar 10 or 12 times," he laughed.

Gerrells doesn't take all the credit, though.

"Meals are always a big part of an auction," he said, "and it takes a lot of people to do it. Its not just me, it's a community thing. John and Sonja Holm have helped at every one of them, too. John brings his PA system and Sonja jumps right in."

Recently, Gerrells spent a few days in the hospital in Billings after the box truck he was driving was blown over near Cody. He was turning onto the Meeteetsee Highway when an 80 m.p.h. gust hit him, blowing the truck filled with mail over. Gerrells said there was a highway patrolman right behind him who caught everything on his dash camera.

"He told me I did everything right, but there was no stopping it," Gerrells said. He broke his sternum and a few ribs and is recuperating at home.

As for the future of the cookie jar auction, "I'll do them as long as I'm able," he said.

Even the wind can't keep a good auctioneer down.