CHAIRity Auction benefits United Way

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RIT Production Services

Artist David Thelen’s “Tiger Pride on the Inside” will be up for bids during RIT’s United Way CHAIRity Auction from March 6-16.

Take a used, simple wooden chair, paint and decorate it into a joyous work of art, and sell it to the highest bidder during the CHAIRity Auction to benefit Rochester Institute of Technology’s 2015 United Way Campaign.

A first-time event, the online CHAIRity fundraiser runs from March 5-16, and the public is welcome to participate. Bidding starts at $50 a chair.

“The 29 chairs, which were donated from across campus, were gone in 25 minutes—picked up by staff, students, departments, and even one RIT employee who took three chairs to his wife’s student art classes at Newark High School,” said Carol Reed, RIT’s 2015 Steering Committee Chair, who organized the auction with Wendy Stapf from RIT’s Center for Residence Life.

One of the talented artist contributors is David Thelen, who works in ITS Network Support at RIT. He said he went into a “Zen state of mind” and spent the entire Christmas break designing and working at “Tiger Pride on the Inside.” The hand-painted chair features a roaring lion underneath the seat, complemented by black and check flowered pattern on the outside and highlighted with a winter country scene.

“I volunteered to paint the chair because I have a friend with leukemia—and she’s a lot like the name of the chair. She looks beautiful but you don’t know what’s going on in the inside, so this is like a tribute in her fight for life. Proceeds from my chair will benefit United Way’s Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.”

A sampling of chair designs include:

• A pastel-colored child’s chair with a cat sitting among flowers by Patricia Henzel, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and former furniture painter for MacKenzie-Childs
• A yellow chair with polka dots, orange chair with RIT stickers, blue chair with sponge painted ABC’s—created by preschoolers and kindergarteners at Margaret’s House, RIT’s Child Care Center
• A metallic Mendhi henna-style chair by Amelia Rothfuss, second-year mechanical engineering student in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering
• A whimsical, ABC’s-designed child-friendly reading chair “re-engineered” with a reading lamp by RIT’s Women in Engineering

“The CHAIRity Auction is a way for people to become involved with United Way while sharing their talent as artists,” said Reed. “We’ve seen some amazing chair transformations that really capture the imagination. People will treasure them.”

Online bidding for RIT’s United Way CHAIRity Auction begins at 8 a.m. on March 5 at the RIT CHAIRity Auction website. For more information, contact Lynn Rowoth, RIT director of Special Events & Conferences, at lynn.rowoth@rit.edu or 585-475-7408.