NORWICH – Norm Nichols and his sister Michelle Guyer have been doing fundraisers for different organizations for years. After participating in events like Chinese Auctions for the fire department and the auxiliary, the two came up with an idea for a different type of money-raising event.
“I said Norm should put himself up for auction, and he took it from there,” said Guyer. An auction will be held starting at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at The Auction Center, 29 Academy St., New Berlin. One of the items up for bid on Saturday will be Nichols himself.
Nichols, or as his family calls him, Stormin’ Norman, will be up for auction. The winning bidder will receive a dinner date with Nichols at The Turning Stone Casino’s Emerald Room, and some gambling in the casino. The date will be held on the following Saturday, March 3. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the SPCA. The owner of the auction house, Roger Wheeler, has also agreed to donate his commission on the auction and will be putting up donation buckets around the auction house for Saturday’s festivities.
Nichols hopes he will be able to pay half of the adoption fee for the first person to adopt a pet who was at Saturday’s auction. “I love animals,” said Nichols, who currently has two dogs, both of which were adopted through the SPCA. Nichols hopes through this auction, he is able to give something back to the organization. “They’ll be able to use whatever we can get,” Nichols said.
“We wanted to do a fundraiser in a way that people wouldn’t have to spend too much money,” Guyer said. The youngest child in a family of 19, Nichols enjoys fishing, camping and spending time at Turning Stone. “We’ll go to The Emerald Room for dinner and have good food, we’ll do a little gambling and make it an evening’s worth,” Nichols said.
Guyer and Nichols encourage anyone who is interested in helping the SPCA to bring their donations of cat or dog food to the Saturday’s auction, or to drop them off directly at the SPCA.