Convention has late-'Knight' fundraiser
By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN
ABC Network had the "Flying Nun" in the late 1960s.
These days, the Kansas Knights of Columbus State Convention has the "Auctioneer Priest."
And unlike the fictional character Sally Fields played on a television series from 1967 to 1970, Father Bernie Gorges is for real.
Gorges has been serving as the auctioneer for the "Pennies from Heaven" auction at the state K of C convention for four years.
The auction, one of the most popular events at the convention, on Sunday night raised nearly $8,000 for the Knights' Emergency Disaster Aid Program.
The auction, at Holiday Inn, was the final event of two days of activities of the convention in Hays for the first time since 2002.
Members of the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization and their wives from all 256 councils in Kansas came to Hays for workshops and meetings and German meals and fellowship.
Today concludes the four-day convention, which began Friday with a golf tournament.
Today is somewhat of a comedown after the auction, which gets people excited while bidding each other up for a good cause.
The Knights' EDAP gives money for emergency assistance, such as during last year's Greensburg tornado.
"The convention Mass is probably one of the most well-attended," Convention Director Dean Haselhorst said of the Sunday afternoon Mass at St. Fidelis Catholic Church in Victoria, attended by about 1,100 people. "But the auction is always so much fun, too, because of what Father Bernie does with it."
While he is busy with his duties as pastor of Holy Name Catholic Church in Winfield, Gorges isn't likely going to be able to give up his auctioneer job any time soon, either.
Nearly an hour after the auction ended at about midnight Sunday, people still were coming up and telling Gorges about what a good job he had done.
While milking every last dollar out of the bidders, Gorges obviously was enjoying himself.
"I'm all worn out," he said early in the auction after eking out more money from the bidders for an item.
"This is just too exciting," said Gorges, already working up a sweat in his black clergy outfit while standing high above the crowd on a Genie scissors lift. "This is better than preaching."
Gorges kept the crowd, even non-bidders, involved throughout the auction, which included handmade items from Knights, ranging from large furniture pieces to rosaries, from afghans to wind chimes. There was a nativity set and even a Time magazine from 1964, shortly after the murder of President John F. Kennedy.
Small or large, most items went for a lot of money.
After the last item -- a large cedar chest -- had been auctioned off, Gorges made a bee-line for the outdoors to get some fresh air.
Then as he sat and relaxed in the lobby of the hotel, Lynn Kasper from Wilson, wife of longtime K of C member John Kasper, walked up and handed Gorges a limestone rock with a Kansas State University purple PowerCat painted on it.
Gorges, an avid K-State fan, graciously accepted the gift while talking about how a Catholic priest got into the auctioneering business in the first place.
"I started doing this out of horrific boredom while driving a John Deere tractor," Gorges said of his younger days while growing up on a farm in southwest Sedgwick County.
"Remember that auctioneer song? That's what got me started," he said in reference to Leroy VanDyke's "The Auctioneer," also sung by Johnny Cash.
One year, the auctioneer for "Pennies from Heaven" fell ill just before the state convention, and organizers started scrambling.
Someone heard Gorges auctioneered for fun and suggested asking him. And they've been asking ever since.
"You do such a good job," Lynn Kasper told Gorges, "that you're going to have to keep coming to these conventions."
Proceeds from the auction goes to the K of C's state council, where it is preserved until it's needed.
Each of the 250-plus councils in Kansas have their own fundraisers for EDAP, which culminates in a "Pennies from Heaven" parade the Sunday of the state convention in the spring.
The K of C annually raises about $88,000 for emergency relief, such as for victims of the Greensburg tornado, to whom the K of C donated $50,000.
Sunday's parade contributed $58,000 to the amount -- and almost another $8,000 from the auction.
"It was a really good day for EDAP," Haselhorst said. "I think just a really good convention overall."