Sports memorabilia among auction items to benefit shelter

Imagine owning a 1920s-era framed photograph of legendary Kansas University basketball coach Phog Allen, with his signature on the back.

Or a replica of an early 1960s KU football jersey with an actual Gale Sayers autograph.

Those are just two of the more than 400 items to be sold Friday during this year’s Lawrence Humane Society Pawsible Dream auction fundraiser.

“We have some very unique, vintage KU memorabilia, so if you like that sort of thing, this is the place to go,” said Bobbi Pray, a part-time staff member at the Humane Society and one of the organizers of the auction.

Also on the auction block are several sets of tickets to KU football and basketball games.

Most items will be sold through a silent auction when it starts at 6 p.m. in the Lawrence Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive. A live auction will follow at 8 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. for anyone who wants to come early and see what’s available. Admission prices are $25 for one person and $40 for two people. Drinks and finger food will be available and music will be provided.

Not all items to be auctioned are KU- or sports-related, Pray said. There also are tickets and packages for trips to Los Angeles; Vail, Colo.; and Taos, N.M.

And not all items are expensive.

“We have things with a wide range of prices,” Pray said. “It’s what we call an ‘everyman’s auction.'”

All funds raised go toward care of animals taken in by the Humane Society. The society’s shelter cares for about 7,000 animals a year, including 450 that are abused or neglected and 600 that are ill or injured, society director Midge Grinstead said.

The Humane Society’s annual budget is $785,000 and it recently completed a $600,000 renovation to the animal shelter. The society gets less than $300,000 in a combined total from the city of Lawrence and Douglas County.

“We’re struggling,” Grinstead said. “This needs to be a really good auction.”

A list of the auction items can be found on the Humane Society’s Web site, www.lawrencehumane.org/.