A Record Breaking Evening with Our House!

It was an incredibly exciting evening at Midnight at the Oasis - the 2011 auction and event for Our House that took place over the weekend!

From start to finish, this magical, Moroccan themed event was an unprecedented evening filled with entertainment, indulgence, and most importantly, inspiration!  Upon arriving at the Portland Art Museum, guests were welcomed by Portland’s notorious, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who were there to remind guests that the evenings festivities were thoroughly Portland and thoroughly indulgent indeed!

Therapy llamas, Rojo and Smokey, set the perfect tone as guests entered the foyer at the Portland Art Museum. Both llamas adorned in their own Moroccan attire, provided a fun and lovingly interactive back drop for guest photos ! (The photos taken that evening will be shared with guests post-event).

A fantastic array of Silent Auction packages filled the Sunken Ballroom at the Portland Art Museum, and additional revenue generating opportunities such as a “Platinum Ticket” Raffle (a raffle opportunity wherein the winner can choose a Live Auction item/package as their prize), provided guests with endless opportunities to showcase their support for Our House - a beloved Portland nonprofit organization that inspires people with HIV/AIDS to live well by providing integrated health and housing services with compassion, collaboration, and respect.

After the Silent Auction came to a close, guests were invited up to the Kridell Grand Ballroom of the Portland Art Museum where they were enticed with the evening’s lively entertainment!

Our House has taken the traditional model of a Live Auction and Event, and has cleverly and creatively morphed that model into an Auction and Event experience like no other! Our House has shown that by weaving uniquely fabulous pieces of entertainment into the forefront of the event, that they can generate an engaging level of excitement and momentum which later serves as a fundraising catalyst as the evening progresses towards the Live Auction! One example of this was showcased in the Welcome Video that Auction and Event Co-Chairs Gary Maffei and Marc Lintner created in partnership with Magaurn Video Media.

Rather than giving basic general welcomes and sponsorship recognitions at the start of the program, Our House has created an experience for the guests that is much more visually enticing – using video footage filmed on a green screen and incorporating thematic background images, allowing the guests to travel in this instance to various parts of Northern Africa!

Below you can see “Midnight at the Oasis” Auction and Event Co- Chairs, Gary Maffei and Marc Lintner thanking their wine sponsor for the evening, while sipping it from the sweeping landscape of the Sahara Desert!  Sponsors are thrilled to be involved with an event that utilizes this kind of recognition!

The fantastically talented team at Magaurn Video Media can offer their expertise to put something as unique as the Our House welcome video together for your auction and event as well!

Following their special welcome video, Our House kicked off their program for the evening with a beautiful performance by Polaris Dance Company, which was concluded with fire dancers positioned on each corner of the room to heat things up a bit, adding yet more fuel and excitement to the Live Auction that was still to come!

At the culmination of the fire performance, two striking beauties entered the ballroom carrying a treasure chest onto the stage, which was subsequently lit on fire! Out of this Moroccan treasure chest emerged the evening’s Master of Ceremonies, local actor/singer extrordonaire, Dale Johannes. Talk about an entrance!

After Dale’s emergence from the fiery treasure chest, our Principal Fundraising Auctioneer, Johnna Wells, was carried out to the stage by the same beautiful entourage that introduced the evening’s Master of Ceremonies.

It’s not often that our Auctioneers make this sort of entrance to the stage, but such creative and wildly exciting elements of entertainment and thematic inclusions certainly set a decadent tone leading into the Live Auction – a stellar format that in many instances leads to fundraising success!

Once the Live Auction began, there was no stopping the energy in the room and the unwavering support for Our House. Portland’s most remarkably generous and spirited donors gathering together for one exotically entertaining evening, raising over $400,000 – an Our House fundraising record – in support of people living with HIV/AIDS. In support of Our House! And we here at Benefit Auctions 360 are truly honored to have had the opportunity to join them in that unwavering support!