Posted by Lois Szymanski on Tuesday July 03rd, 2007
For the 2005 auction, the Chincoteague Fire Department generously allowed the Feather Fund to set up a tent to collect donations. We put up a display board with pictures of the children and ponies that have been touched by Carollynn in the past, along with pictures of last year’s Feather Fund Pony Award winners, Veronica and Madeline Webb of Owasso, Oklahoma. Copies of the many articles that have come out in the past also adorned the display board. We offered a tiny stuffed pony to anyone who made a donation. Joe Cimino, a producer with Channel 19 in Westminster, Maryland accompanied his wife Audrey Cimino of the Community Foundation of Carroll County, (our umbrella) to the island. He came loaded with camera equipment to film a documentary for Channel 19. The Feather Fund had chosen ten year old Summer Barrick of Westminster, MD to receive their 2005 Pony Award. She had submitted her application with an essay that showed how much she wanted a Chincoteague Pony. She, and her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother joined us on the island, as did her dad and her step-mom. While on Assateague Island looking over the ponies, the Szymanski’s (Lois and Shannon) along with Audrey and Joe Cimino met a wonderful young woman named Lara Cornell. When Lara found out about the Feather Fund, she volunteered to haul Summer’s pony foal home, free of charge. It was just another sign of how Carollynn’s kindness continues to snowball. Lara and her husband Mike quickly became members of our Feather Fund family, a group that continues to grow. Summer had spent the week writing down the numbers of the foals she liked. On auction day, she nervously bit her nails as she waited for the right foal to come out, but excitement danced in her eyes as she bid on her filly. When the auctioneer said, “Sold” we all shouted. Summer yelled the loudest! She’d purchased a beautiful bay pinto filly (that looks a lot like Sea Feather!) for $1,900. She named her filly, Starlight Blessing. After Summer had purchased her foal, Roe Terry, from the Chincoteague Fire Department came to us. He pointed out an Amish family who he thought might need some help buying a pony. Roe said the family had been coming for many years, always falling short on cash to buy a pony. Roe Terry asked if the Feather Fund would be on hand to help them out this year, and we quickly agreed. Henry Stolzfus and his four children, we decided to go for it! It turned out that they wanted to buy a buckskin filly from a specific herd. Each year the foals from that herd sold for higher prices, out of their price range. This year, the Stoltzfus family had brought $3,000 with them to the island. When the filly they wanted came into the ring, the bidding soared past $3,000, until he finally was able to purchase it for $3,800. The Feather Fund paid the additional $800 and pitched in to pay for his hauling fees. Kathy and Gerald Line of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania cut their hauling fee in half for the Feather Fund. The two oldest boys in the family, Eli and David were interviewed by Joe Cimino, as were the other Feather Fund kids. Joe is working on a documentary about the Feather Fund. Matt Loveland, (who had received a foal from Carollynn) was heard to say, “Finally, another boy gets a foal!”
The auction was nearing an end when Ed and Shannon met Elizabeth Stephens of Hope Indiana. Elizabeth had saved $1,100 for a foal and she had a specific one picked out. This little filly was all she could think about. She’d already named her, Hope. When her foal came out the fire department announced this one was a buyback for the island. Elizabeth was heartbroken. She sobbed uncontrollably. Shannon approached Elizabeth and talked to her about buying a different foal, but Elizabeth couldn’t think that far ahead. She couldn’t see past the pain of losing the filly she had set her heart on. Shannon moved away and allowed Elizabeth time alone with her family, then moved over to talk to her again. There were only six foals left to come out. Shannon knew that Elizabeth only wanted a filly, and that made the odds even harder to beat. Then, a little girl foal came out that looked a lot like the buy-back foal. Elizabeth nodded and they jumped into the bidding. Finally, Elizabeth had her foal. The Feather Fund pitched in $1600 to add to her $1100 and Hope was purchased for $2,700. Elizabeth was taking Hope home! The Feather Fund had purchased, or helped purchase three fillies! The generosity of others was overwhelming. Several folks wrote us checks for $100 and one woman and her mom wrote us a check for $500! We raised over $1,000 in five hours at our little booth! MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE 2005 AUCTION: All in all, 65 ponies were sold, less than the 74 auctioned off the year before. The average price for a foal was $2,250, higher than the previous year when the island had flooded. The total amount raised was $148,700 also higher than last year's $119,800. The highest selling foal was an $8,000 buy-back foal purchase by a Mr. Moore. He had purchased the mother as a buy-back, the buy-back grandmother, and the buy-back great-grandmother, making this a fourth generation buy-back. One fireman said Moore told him he would buy this fourth generation foal, even if he had to spend $20,000 to do it! The lowest selling foal was the first to be sold, a 2-month-old colt, going for $900. The Feather Fund spent $4,200 at the auction and paid for the hauling of one foal. |
