Holmes County Home cancels fall benefit auction

Each year the Holmes County Home has relied heavily on its annual Fall Benefit Auction to raise funds that afford all of the residents there with the best care and comfort possible.

However, this is no ordinary year, and after plenty of lengthy discussion about what to do concerning this year’s event due to the coronavirus outbreak, the county home has officially decided to cancel this year’s fundraiser.

According to Deb Miller, director at the Holmes County Home, the decision was not made lightly, but she said the board agreed that because of the current state of the nation and the community, it would be better if they skipped this year’s event and focused on the 2021 auction.

“It’s not until September, but the auction coordinator (Aden Hershberger) and I talked, and we felt it would be better to forego this year’s event,” Miller said. “First of all, we don’t know what September will even bring. But most of all we felt that with everything that has transpired and with the economy struggling because of coronavirus issues, it wouldn’t be appropriate to go out into the community and ask for donations.”

Miller also pointed out the safety issue of sending out benefit auction committee members into the community to seek donations, with health issues continuing to be a real possibility.

“We hated to cancel it, but we weren’t even sure how many people would actually show up for the event, and then we might end up putting more money and effort into it than we’d get in return,” Miller said.

Miller said normally the push to collect donations and plan the event would have begun in March and they would now be in the midst of a huge drive to collect donations.

The annual fall event hosts plenty of food and has an enormous volleyball tournament, and the auction raises a large amount of money that helps the county home provide much-needed equipment and updates to the facility that make life better for the residents.

While missing the auction will leave a dent in the finances, Miller said the county home is in good shape financially and they will be able to soak up the missing funds, although that will mean putting some improvement plans on hold for the time being. She said they had been looking at doing a sizeable addition to the home that would include an activity room for the residents.

“Because we had been holding off on spending so we could dedicate funds to the new addition, the majority of the funds from last year haven’t been spent,” Miller said. “So we still have funding in place to provide the necessities for our residents that we would normally provide. If we were going to have to miss a year for the auction, this is probably as good of a year as possible.”

Miller said while the funds may not come in through the auction, the one thing a lack of money can’t take away is the commitment, care and love provided by the staff at the home that will continue to serve as the most important part of the residents’ lives.

“We’re OK,” Miller said. “The addition getting put on hold is difficult because we are all excited to see that happen, but the good thing is that funds are available to do what is necessary and provide for our residents. I definitely think we did the right thing. I told Aden that next year we will just have to come back bigger and better than ever, and we know our community is going to step up. People have been incredibly supportive over the years, and we have been blessed.”

With the absence of the Holmes County Home Benefit Auction, anyone wishing to make a donation in lieu of the auction funds they might have spent can do so by calling Miller at 330-279-2801 or by sending donations through the mail to Homes County Home, 7260 state Route 83, Holmesville, OH 44633.