Andy Close
WARREN, Pa. – The Warren County YMCA Special Ops Auction is something that is very close to Thad Turner’s heart.
Turner, the Executive Director of the Y, is spearheading the 4th annual event, which helps to serve numerous YMCA activities.
“It’s amazing,” Turner said. “There’s everything from a week-long trip to Costa Rica, to Indianapolis 500 tickets, Buffalo Bills tickets, Cleveland Browns VIP tickets, a trip to go elk spotting that includes a gourmet wild animal dinner. There’s just so much and it’s a big deal.”
The event will be on Thursday (Dec. 8) at 7 p.m. at the Conewango Club in Warren. Tickets are $25 dollars in advance and $30 dollars at the door and include your first drink, hors d’oeuvres, and entertainment.
And if you are unable to make it, you can place bids at https://warrenymca.afrogs.org.
“So you can just sit at home and bid,” Turner said. “There’s just so much. My one nephew has very successful jiujitsu and mixed martial arts gyms in Pittsburgh. “He’s going to come up here and teach lessons to somebody or they can come down to one of his gyms in Pittsburgh. There’s just really all these unique experiences. It will just be really, really neat.”
Among the programs, the auction will help support are LiveSTRONG, Rainbow Swim, Mental Wellness/Whole Health, Seventh-grade initiative community free days, family fun night, holiday experience, no school days activities, and more.
“This enables us to do things that we normally wouldn’t be able to do,” Turner said. “That’s why we call it the Special Operations dinner. It’s special operations because it allows us to do things outside of the scope of what we would normally be able to do.”
And Turner said those bidding love to have fun with many of the prizes and opportunities offered.
“We’ve had a couple of people that make it really interesting because we’ve had years where there have been matched gifts,” Tuner said. “So if somebody gave $200 last year, somebody matched that and made it $400. And then somebody matched and made it $800 So a normal person can give $200 and it turns into $400.”
Doors to the event open at 5:30 p.m.
“We hope the same thing happens this year,” Turner said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
