Blustery winds off Clinton Lake and dark skies didn’t discourage organizers of Saturday evening’s outdoor fund-raiser for Van Go Mobile Arts.

“I kept checking weather.com, and it said there was a chance of rain every hour,” said Lynne Green, executive director of the program. “But we’re doing it anyway.”

About 300 people migrated to the lake’s marina for the nonprofit organization’s “Maiden Voyage 2004 What Floats Your Boat?” event. Van Go auctioned artwork made by the program’s 20 student JAMS apprentices, all between the ages of 14 and 18. JAMS, or Jobs in the Arts Make Sense, pays at-risk youths minimum wage to create artwork, some of which is commissioned by local clients.

Van Go charged $35 per person and provided a parade of pontoons, barbecue, beer and live music by Marvin Hunt and the Gold Combo Band.

Plans for the event began brewing in May 2003, and it’s probable that it will become an annual event.

“We’ll judge the success of the evening, and we’ll go from there,” said Heather Hoy, Van Go development director. “It’s looking good so far.”

Twenty-one items, including a hot-air balloon ride, painted furniture and the “Gogh Hawks Gogh” Jayhawk on Parade, were slated for bidding at the live auction.

Suggested value of the items ranged from $75 for a painting to $650 for a custom-made Van Go bench. The Jayhawk on Parade, which was vandalized when it was displayed in the 1100 block of Massachusetts Street last year, was refurbished before the auction. Bidding for the Jayhawk started at $3,000, Green said.

The Van Go program, founded by Green in 1997, is designed to give teens creative freedom, emotional support, vocational training and a paycheck.

Van Go hires 20 students each school semester and another 20 in the summer.

“She saves 60 lives a year,” Topeka resident Alan Gilmore said of Green. “It just changes their perspective of reality. They’re able to see that there are people who love them.”

Gilmore, a teacher, bought a bench last year for his classroom at Eisenhower Middle School in Topeka.

Sixteen-year-old Chelsea Shrimplin, a student at Lawrence Alternative High School, has always wanted to be an artist. This program allows her that avenue early, she said.

“There’s not a lot of other places that’ll pay you to do art,” said Shrimplin, who worked for the program in the spring session this year.

The students’ work is taking permanent display at some locations around Lawrence. A 27-foot-by-45-foot Van Go mural above the south entrance of the Lawrence Public Library was unveiled in April.

Glass work and paintings by youths in the Van Go program is on display until June 30 at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt.

The unveiling for Benchmark 2004, Van Go’s signature Summer JAMS program, will be Friday, July 23, at Van Go’s work site, 715 N.J.