MOSES LAKE — Who says you can’t celebrate Christmas in October? Likewise, who says you can’t throw on an ugly Christmas sweater, have fun with fellow ugly-Christmas-sweater-wearers and help out a good cause while you’re at it? Displaying their knitted atrocities brought hundreds of people together Saturday night for a common cause – to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club’s auction.

Yomara Figueroa is just one of those people who have been helped by the club. Figueroa, who attended the club as a kid and is now a freshman at Washington State University, spoke to the large crowd gathered in the ATEC building at Big Bend Community College and detailed just how big of an impact the auction has on the kids who attend the club.

“Thank you so much for being here. This means the world to all the kids out there. You are changing the lives of millions of children and you don’t even know it. So thank you so much for everything that you do,” Figueroa told the crowd.

From the silent auction to the almost-live auction, raffle and live auction, there were countless ways attendees supported the club financially during the event. Items in the almost-live auction ranged from Seattle Mariners tickets to a WSU fire pit manufactured by students from the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center and even professional grade landscaping services.

In the main event of the night the fast-talking Chuck Yarbro, of Chuck Yarbro Auctioneers, enticed the crowd to bid on high-dollar items such as a fishing trip for two on the Grande Ronde River and golfing at the Coeur d’Alene Golf Course and a one-night stay for four at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

Attendees were constantly reminded that whatever money they pledged is going to a good cause and will be used in such a way that not even a penny is wasted. The auction is the biggest fundraiser the club does and raises tens of thousands of dollars annually to support the club’s many different endeavors. Boys and Girls Club Chief Professional Officer Kim Pope noted the main goal of the club is for the kids to leave the club feeling better than when they came.

“Every child that leaves the Boys and Girls Club at night, I want them to go to bed and think this is the best place, the best time that they had and made me feel good about myself. And everything that we do is focused on that,” Pope told the crowd.

The amount raised during the event was not immediately available.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.