Louann Garrett wanted the Yorkie puppy. Badly. So when the 4-month old dog was auctioned off on Saturday, Garrett would not be outbid.
Garrett, of Kansas City, paid $900 for the puppy that she named Atlas.
Garrett on Saturday took part in the 21st annual Over the Rainbow Auction Gala that was held at the former Sam’s Town Casino building, which is now owned by the Cerner Corp.
The event raised money for the Rainbow Center, a non-profit organization in Blue Springs that provides assistance to people with special educational and developmental needs.
The gala’s theme was “Wild, Wild West” that had participants donning their western wear. Supper was filet mignon, corn, potatoes and beans.
Event organizers hope the fundraiser, which included a live and silent auction, raises $110,000. The money will go the Rainbow Center day school for children age 3 to 21 with disabilities along with a habitation for adults with severe disabilities.
Joy Hobick, the co-auction chairwoman, said an accident in the area before the event cut off electricity to the building. This happened around 6 p.m. The lights came back on at 7:15 p.m. The outage did not affect the main events, which were the live auction and dinner.
Hobick and co-auction chairwoman Colleen Foudree rolled with the unexpected outage.
“It created atmosphere,” Hobick said. “People thought we were totally into the wild, wild west theme when there were no lights.”
Foudree said: “Actually, if you think about it, if you were really in the wild, wild west, back in those days, you wouldn’t have had power. It would’ve been totally manual.”
