MOSES LAKE — The Big Bend Community College Foundation’s annual Cellarbration! for Education auction was bigger than ever Saturday night.

“This is a record number,” said LeAnne Parton, director of the foundation. “We have over 300 people here.”

The amount raised Saturday night was not immediately available.

Last year, the college celebrated one of the largest graduating classes in its history, President Sara Thompson Tweedy told the attendees, and started a second bachelor’s degree program, this one in behavioral health.

“(The Big Bend Foundation is) supporting a growing number of students who are choosing Big Bend as their path forward, and tonight is about making sure that those students can finish that path,” Tweedy said. “That’s the real beauty of this event. Yes, we get to reconnect with friends. Yes, there’s some fun and competition and there’s a lot of good loot involved. But the beauty of this is that underneath it all, there is something more serious. There is something that is more lasting: students who are counting on an opportunity. They are counting on us.”

One of those students was the evening’s speaker, Judah Tadema, a BBCC graduate and now a junior majoring in elementary education at Central Washington University. Tadema was adopted from Ukraine as a small child and brought to the United States, he said.

“Prior to my adoption at 7 years old, I had been in three different orphanages,” Tadema said. “Moving to each one meant breaking the foundation of normalcy that I knew and forced me to start again. To tell you the truth, at the moment our car pulled up in the driveway of my new home that first night, I had just one thought and that was, ‘What if this is just another orphanage?’”

Speaking no English, Tadema quickly found himself overwhelmed in his first American classroom, he said; every lesson and every conversation was in a language he couldn’t comprehend.

“Trying to understand the world around me felt like attempting to solve a puzzle without all the pieces,” he said. “However, what made the difference during that time was the constant support of my parents, my educators and my mentors who believed that success was possible. Teachers invested patience and time into helping me develop the language skills necessary to succeed academically.”

Within a year, Tadema went from not speaking English to getting A grades in spelling. The support from his teachers spurred in him a desire to become a teacher himself, he said.

But the cost of higher education gets higher all the time, Tadema said, and to finance his education, he worked two jobs during the summer, sometimes as many as 90 hours a week.

“Nevertheless, hard work does not always overcome the financial realities of higher education,” Tadema said. “This is where scholarships become truly impactful. Because of scholarship support, I was able to finish my Associate of Arts degree from Big Bend without incurring any student debt. That outcome is something I deeply appreciate, and scholarships create an alternative path to taking out loans.”

Before the banquet got underway, President Sara Thompson Tweedy took a moment to present a bouquet of flowers to state Sen. Judy Warnick, who announced her retirement from the Legislature earlier this year.

Cellarbration! raises money for scholarships for Big Bend students, Parton said.

“That includes seniors from all of our 19 high schools in our service district, returning students who have been out of school at least one year, our bachelor’s program, Running Start students, individuals from each one of our workforce education programs and our student athletes,” she said.

The theme was “Get Ready for a Roaring Good Time,” and many attendees were dressed in 1920s finery, with feathers, beads, top hats and tails. The BBCC men’s basketball team and Associated Student Body officers served, and Michael’s on the Lake catered the dinner with prime rib and smoked salmon. Tables in the BBCC ATEC building were lined with silent auction items, and Jacob Barth of Chuck Yarbro Auctions conducted the live auction with help from spotters Jeffrey Holm and Chelsea Yarbro.

The auction concluded with a paddle raise for an emergency fund the foundation maintains for students who run out of money mid-term and need a little boost.

“Big Bend is not just a college,” Tweedy said. “It is a place where momentum builds, where doors open and where lives change direction.”

    Darla, left, and Fred Meise chat with attendees at Cellarbration! Saturday. The theme was “Get Ready for a Roaring Good Time,” and many attendees dressed in 1920s finery.
  

    Big Bend Community College President Sara Thompson Tweedy, right, presents state Sen. Judy Warnick with flowers in appreciation of Warnick’s support for the college. Warnick announced this year that she is retiring from the Senate.
  

    Big Bend Community College alumnus Judah Tadema speaks at Cellarbration! for Education Saturday about the support he received from the Big Bend Community College Foundation.