Auction raises $25,000 for the homeless and hungry

The sixth annual Hunger and Homeless Auction organized by students last November raised more than $25,000 for local charities, including soup kitchens, food delivery agencies and a homeless shelter for women and children.

Items on the block included lunch at the United Nations with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a four-day sojourn at the Maine cottage of Deputy Dean Robert H. Gifford, M.D., H.S. ’67, and a dessert a month for six months. Two associate deans, Ruth Katz, J.D., M.P.H., and Nancy R. Angoff, M.D. ’90, H.S. ’90-93, M.P.H. ’81, successfully bid for roles in the second-year show presented in February.

A four-day stay for up to six people in the Martha’s Vineyard home of Keith A. Joiner, M.D., professor of medicine and epidemiology, and Jo Ellen Schweinle, M.D., assistant clinical professor of medicine, fetched the highest price, $1,550. The design and construction of a tree house came in second at $1,400. Richard Donabedian, M.D., professor of laboratory medicine, hesitated not a second in bidding $500 for a promise of full attendance at a lecture from the Class of 2001. “I didn’t know we were that bad,” joked Kebba Jobarteh, a member of the class and one of the organizers of the auction. Other organizers were Michael Fehm and Kathy Witgert.