The Best Prize at the School Auction Is a Parking Space

A yacht raises questions: weather, clothing, the other passengers. A parking space has already answered the only one that matters.

In England, the fundraising guide for St. Dominic's Grammar School's summer ball in Brewood listed a reserved pickup space every day for a year. A separate lot offered two front-row seats at school events. The organizers helpfully suggested bidding on both.

Arrive without circling. Sit without trying to see your child between two other parents' heads. That is not a lot. That is a lifestyle.

Then comes the sequel. In September 2024, St. Brendan School's weekly bulletin reminded families that certain spaces in the church parking lot had been purchased at the previous school auction. The reserved signs were on a fence and could be hard to see. Please, it asked, do not park in them.

This is the moment an elegant fundraising idea meets the people who are looking for somewhere to park at 7:55 a.m. and did not read the fence.

Our school auction last spring offered a weekend in a lake house, a signed baseball, a cooking class with a local chef and, near the end of the list, "reserved spot, front row, spring concert." My wife wrote our number on the lake house. I wrote our number on the concert seats, twice, when nobody was looking.

We did not get the lake house. We got the seats. At the spring concert, the youngest's class sang four songs. I could see her the whole time, and she could see me, and she waved during the third song, which the teacher had specifically asked the children not to do.

On the way out we found that someone had parked across the end of our row of cars, three deep. We waited forty minutes. The youngest asked if next year we could buy the parking space too. I said those go fast. She said then we should practice.