Doubled Up: Belmont Foundation Smashes Fundraising Record

Neal Fay was bouncing around the floor of the Belmont Hill School's athletic center pleading, begging, badgering two bidders to best their last offer.

"You can be a HERO!" proclaimed Fay, the extraordinaire volunteer auctioneerr for the Foundation for Belmont Education, which held its annual Spring Fundraiser – the "Big Birthday Bask!" – on Saturday night, March 16. 

As bidders raised the bar, Fay ratchet up the volume of his pitch during the live auction before more than 400 party attendees who came to the town's yearly big social event, a night of dining, dancing and donations.

During some of the bidding, Fay was turning and pointing between two parties who were determined to win the auction item despite price. The dinner for ten by chef Dante de Magistris at il Casale was going to be won by Elizabeth Allison no matter who was bidding against the economist, raising out of her seat with her booklet out stretched to raise the price by $100 until her challenger ended his effort in exhaustion. 

While others would run out of energy, not so Fay who proved to be "on" for the entire night.

"Five going once! Going twice! ... Soooooold! OH!" shouted an ecstatic Fay as he ran over to slap the back and high-five another winning bidder.

Now entering its third decade, the Foundation as been making a difference in each of Belmont's six public schools by sponsoring innovative teaching, curricula, technology and other projects, awarding more than a $1 million since 2008.

Heidi Sawyer, an FBE officer responsible for the fundraising, said she and other officials taught they would be hard pressed to match the $33,000 raised during last year's fundraiser. 

Yet money from the raffle and the "box" surprise ($11,000) was equal to last year's amount and Fay helped up the ante by doubling the amount raised on three live auction items – a VIP tour of Fenway Park, an at-home paella dinner for 12 and a week in July on Nantucket (that went for $5,400 each) – by getting the donors to provide the top-two bidders the same prize. 

And the end result turns out to be much better then anyone had hoped. 

"Last  year, we made $33,000; this year we made a record $46,000," said Sawyer. "Very very exciting." 

An official talley will be coming later this week.