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Jennifer Bailey grew up in the Lakes Region and has a long memory of the good cheer that the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction brings to the holiday season. When her children were young several decades ago, the family donated toys. Jennifer also purchased holiday gifts while listening to the radio broadcasts. Shawn Bailey came to the region as an adult and began to take part as an Auction volunteer 14 years ago. He took bids on the phone banks, with his coworkers from Coldwell Banker, and also helped organize annual toy drives in the office. “It was addictive to see the magic that goes on there, and how many people help,” Shawn recalls. “I was impressed with the community and how generous people are.” Jennifer says she tends toward the shy side; getting involved with the Auction in person didn’t feel like her thing. Until her longtime friends, Jennifer and Allan Beetle, co-owners of Patrick’s Pub & Eatery, started dreaming up Pub Mania 11 years ago. “Allan proposed the idea, and Shawn and I loved it so much, we said, ‘We’re in. Tell us what we can do,’” Jennifer says. “That first year, it was meeting and talking—throwing ideas around. They did the majority of it. We just kept saying, ‘What can we do? What can we do?’” Since that first year, Pub Mania has grown tremendously, becoming an event that provides the lion’s share of the funds raised during each year’s Auction week. The event is a 24-hour barstool challenge involving 31 teams of 24 people each. For each of the 24 hours, teams participate in fun games and activities; fundraising also happens year-round, as do various events that range from yard sales and dinner gatherings to the Pub Mania Shuffle, a two-mile walk held on Wednesday nights in the spring and fall. “I was thrilled when Allan came up with the idea for Pub Mania,” Jennifer says. “It’s made it easy for me to get involved.” Jennifer has been a Pub Mania referee since the event’s start. Shawn first served as team captain with his Coldwell Banker colleagues and came on board as a referee three years ago. The refs stay up for 24 hours, working with the crowd, answering questions, leading games and raffles, and handing out prizes. Shawn also judges the dance contest and helps the event’s many musicians set up and break down. Allan and Jennifer; Jeff and Wendy Beetle—also Patrick’s co-owners— and Kate Flaherty are the other event referees. Pub Mania raised $47,000 for the Children’s Auction in its first year—crushing Allan’s goal of $30,000. Last year, the amount raised was $353,361, more than half of the total $580,584 that was raised for the Children’s Auction. “I feel really good about it and really proud,” says Shawn. “The amount of money—it’s needed in this community. To be able to be a part of raising so much money is very rewarding.” He adds that there is pressure to keep pace! “We just have to keep doing it somehow.” Jennifer says, “I love the emotional part of it. Closing ceremonies gives me such a good feeling. I cannot believe the amount of money raised. We live in a beautiful area, but we have a lot of need. It’s amazing how much the Children’s Auction does and how the community comes together.” In 10 years, Pub Mania has raised nearly $2 million for the Children’s Auction. The 2019 edition of the world’s greatest barstool challenge is just around the corner, kicking off on Dec. 5 for 24 hours. Look for the Beetles and Baileys there. Shawn and Allan are sure to perform “Pub Maniacs Answer the Call,” a traditional song the Beetles wrote to tell the event’s backstory. Says Jennifer, “I can’t imagine the holiday season without Pub Mania and the Auction. “When we get to opening ceremonies, there’s always this feeling of, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe we’re here again,’” she adds. “You get to see familiar faces from years past. And when closing ceremonies come, a recipient speaks about what the money has meant to them. It puts all our efforts into perspective.”

Back in 1976, when Warren Bailey was starting his career as a morning DJ at WLNH, his mentor taught him something that has since changed the lives of thousands in the Lakes Region. “He told me, “The microphone is a powerful tool. Do something meaningful with it,’” Warren recalls. It wasn’t a message Warren knew how to act on back then. He was 24. He had yet to glimpse need firsthand. But six years later, he knocked on the door of an apartment building in Laconia to let the resident inside know he’d won a prize for displaying a WLNH bumper sticker on his car. There was no furniture inside. A baby was lying on the bare wooden floor, wrapped in a blanket. Warren was confused at first, thinking perhaps this man at the door was just moving in. Warren then realized he was looking at poverty in the eye for the first time. Warren heard the echo of his mentor’s mantra and well understood what he needed to do. He gave birth to the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction that year, using the power of his microphone to raise money for children and families in need. Broadcasting on WLNH from an unheated van parked on North Main Street, Warren raised $2,100, auctioning off two truckloads of items donated by people in the region. By ones, twos, and threes, over time, area residents got behind Warren’s passion, adding their own and creating an event that helps to sustain 62 area nonprofits that provide for children and families in need. The Auction now involves thousands, many of whom give up a week’s vacation for the privilege of taking part in dozens of ways. The items that are auctioned off are so plentiful the event venue is vast. A nonprofit board now governs the Children’s Auction. The total raised continues to climb each year. In 2018, the Auction raised $580,584. “It’s overwhelming,” says Warren, a gentle and tender man who gets weepy as he tells the Auction’s stories, which have played out over nearly four decades. They are the stories of the people who have helped the effort grow, the people who have been served and now give back. “It takes your breath away,” he adds. “The volunteers are there every year.” Warren came to the Lakes Region and joined WLNH in 1976 after a working in radio in Massachusetts for several years. “I fell in love with the area and the station. The local owner and our wonderful staff was there for me right from the beginning,” he says. After leaving WLNH in 2001, Warren co-owned a radio station and later moved to television and digital sales. In 2015, he launched his own media-buying business, WB Media 1—the “1” added so the firm wouldn’t be confused with Warner Bros. As he does each year, Warren will make his traditional appearance at the Auction, though, during the 38th annual event, to be held from Dec. 3 to Dec. 7 at the Belknap Mall. Returning gives Warren the pleasure of hearing stories from children who were helped long ago and now give back in gratitude—like the young girl who walked away from the auction site 25 years ago, accompanied by a crying mother; the mom was deemed unworthy of assistance due to an addiction and sent away by a volunteer—long since excused from service. Warren chased the two out; he gave the mother $20, saying, “Promise me you will do something for your daughter with this.” Not long ago, that girl—now a grown woman who is a paralegal in Boston—drove to the Auction. She asked for Warren personally, thanked him for the help he offered her late mother, and handed him a check for $1,000. “That’s the kind of impact that the Auction has had,” Warren said. “And that’s just one powerful story.” In the beginning, Warren spread the word by asking everyone he met to listen to his story of the Auction and its magic for 10 minutes. In this way, he built steady and unexpected support and growth. In 1998, Terry Hicks came to town as the new general manager for Metrocast and offered to televise the event, which had previously been broadcast only on the radio. Around the same time, businessman David McGreevy spearheaded the building of an elaborate set from which the Auction took place. TITLE Alan McRae made it possible for the Auction to have four phones, instead of one. (Now there is an entire phone bank of volunteers.) And RJ and Bridget Harding, owners of the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion, offered their entire staff and a host of equipment for the full week of the event, starting a tradition that continues still. The Auction that begin with Warren tabulating the proceeds with a pad of paper and a pencil became tech-savvy with the Harding’s IT assist. Most recently, Patrick’s Pub & Eatery created Pub Mania, a 24-hour event that raises the lion’s share of each year’s profit, bringing in $353,361 last year and donating nearly $2 million over 10 years. “The generosity of the community blows my mind,” Warren says. “People would so often come to the broadcast and hand me $10, knowing it’s the last $10 they have, but also believing that someone else needs it more. There’s no shortage of Christmas spirit at the Children’s Auction.”

Verani Realty Reindeer Pub Mania has a great fundraiser! A $20 donation will put Santa and his reindeer on a front lawn of your choice! Magical Christmas dust included! All donations benefit the Lakes Region Children's Auction. Email mitch.hamel@verani.com to order #ChildrensAuctionChampion

SAVE THE DATE for the 4th Annual 5K Santa Shuffle on Nov 30 at 9am to benefit the Real Downtown Santa's Pubmania Team for the Children's Auction.

Last night was the opening night of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was fantastic! Sleepy yet spirited, haunting and haunted: To neighboring villages, the secluded glen known as Sleepy Hollow is just that -- a lovely, dreamy, bucolic home to congenial people. The residents know it to be bewitched. And when Connecticut schoolmaster Ichabod Crane arrives, terror sets in as he navigates the neighborhood, romances the Mayor’s daughter, and eventually comes head to shoulders with the Headless Horseman. Tempered by a bit of humor as Ichabod vies with village swain Brom for the fair Katrina, expect a creeping sense of Halloween-appropriate horrors to strew his path. Each year, the Winnipesaukee Playhouse Education Department produces four plays and musicals, a full season of Integrated-Arts Summer Camp, an intensive for high school students, and a series of other events. The Education Department teaches theatrical skills and seeks to inspire its students to use theatre as a tool to develop empathy with which they may come to explore and better understand the world. Firmly believing that finances shouldn't be a barrier to students accessing quality arts education, the Playhouse provides financial aid to families who would otherwise not be able to participate. For more information visit their web site.

Waypoint, formerly Child and Family Services, is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit with a nearly 170-year record of protecting and serving the needs of children, empowering families and serving as a strong advocate for children in the public policy arena. As NH’s oldest charitable children’s organization, they provide a full spectrum of social services that address human need at every stage of life. Their service to NH’s most impoverished families began in 1850 with efforts to protect children from abuse and neglect and aid Manchester’s struggling millworkers and immigrant families. Waypoint serves nearly 9,000 children and families across New Hampshire annually. They offer 28 unique programs in four areas of care: Early Childhood/Family Support; Counseling, Intervention & Treatment; Homeless Youth Services; and Senior & Independent Living. In addition, they provide summer camp for children from low-income, at-risk families, and their NH Children’s Lobby works at the legislative level, fighting for laws to protect the rights and best interests of children. Waypoint relies on a patchwork of public and charitable funding to provide a safety net of services for clients. To date in 2019, they are proud to be serving 190 clients and their families in the Lakes Region. Programming here includes the following:  Early supports & services/early intervention for children with developmental concerns  Camperships for families with low-incomes  Mental health & family counseling  Family strengthening & support/home visiting services  Family preservation & stabilization  Transitional living for homeless youth  Parent aide – supervised visitation services  Foster care  Services for children who have chronic health conditions With a mission to empower people of all ages through an array of human services and advocacy, Waypoint helps individuals and families to recognize their strengths, improve daily functioning and to be contributing members of the communities where they live and work.

For over 20 years, CADY has been working with schools, families, and communities in Central New Hampshire to prevent and reduce youth alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use and promote healthy environments and promising futures for our children and youth.  Adolescent use of addictive substances is a health and safety issue that poses serious risks of harm and interferes with brain development.  Children who misuse drugs or alcohol before age 15 are seven times more likely to develop substance use disorders than those who refrain from using drugs or alcohol until the age of 21. Preventing addiction changes everything.  CADY believe there is hope for every child. As each child learns to build strengths, lives are shaped, and new possibilities unfold. When we implement proven youth prevention programs that build skills and resiliency, the outcomes are healthier, happier children. By developing partnerships with significant organizations like the Lakes Region Children’s Auction they can offer every child what they need and deserve —a chance for a better life. Together we can protect our children.  Through our unified efforts, we can erase the headlines of addiction and tragic overdose deaths by stopping the problem before it starts. One important call to action is for each of us, in every NH community, to participate in —by safely disposing of your expired or unused medications at your local police department, you can prevent drug diversion and save lives.

Isaiah 61 Cafe is a 100% volunteer based non-profit organization providing a warm, loving atmosphere for less fortunate families to bask in. We provide a continental breakfast and hot lunch 5 days a week. We also provide access to showers, laundry, lockers, clothing and supplies for those without shelter. During the summer months, we provide a safe place for children of all ages to be nourished both physically and spiritually through our community. While at the cafe, both adults and children experience a respite and find hope through acoustic worship, as well as messages from the pulpit by our volunteers. Since we are 100% volunteer based, we need your help! Come or call (603-524-6161) to sign up to cook and serve a meal today. Better yet, bring a team of three friends to join you and experience the unexplainable joy in helping others!