Dinner Auction

Saturday, September 27th, 2025
SORRY...! Registration CLOSED to check for any cancellations Call Henry on 519 797 1388
 
Watch out for information on next year's Dinner Auction and Dance coming soon..!
 

 
Saturday, September 27th at the Loft 1020, Powerlink, 1020 Goderich St, Port Elgin.
 
Doors open at 5:30 pm....and you will need a password to enter Southampton Rotary's Speakeasy at the Town's newest entertainment venue.  
 
  • The Loft 1020, PowerLink, 1020 Goderich St, Port Elgin
  • Doors open at 5:30 pm
  • Giggle Juice Reception & Dinner at 6:30 pm
  • Auction and then dancing till 11.00 pm

🗝️ Pssst… Want in? To enter the Speakeasy, whisper the secret password at the door. (You will be provided with the secret code as part of your ticket).

And don’t forget to dress the part: Fabulous Flappers & Dapper Gents.

Get ready to party like it’s the 1920's! Prizes for the best-dressed Flapper & Gangster.

Proceeds in support of Rotary causes including, a 'FUND A NEED' to support the Helliwell Park "Light Up The Pitch" Appeal
 

Sneak Peek...here are just some of the items coming up:

  • Sun, sand, and sizzling sunsets await! Bid for your chance to spend a week at Playa Grande Resort, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Sleeps 6 at a 2-bedroom, 3-bathroom penthouse suite. FIXED DATE: November 29–December 6, 2025. Value circa $7000. (NOTE: Accommodation ONLY, flight, transfers, meals, refreshments, and gratuities are NOT included)

  • Lobster Dinner for 8 (An annual favourite offered for the last time..!)

  • Theatre Tickets to the Shaw Theatre, Niagara On The Lake, and Hotel voucher

  • Goodyear Tire package courtesy of Goodyear (Canada) & McArthur Tire, Owen Sound
  • A Taste of Portugal for 8 featuring an afternoon of Petiscos, wine, and more..!
  • Restaurant Gift Certificates featuring tastes of Saugeen Shores
  • and much more..!
Outline Program (Indicative timings only)

5:30 Doors open, Giggle Juice Reception, Registration.
6:30 Dinner, Buffet style.  (Salad plus main course)
7:45 Heads and Tails
8:00 Live Auction
8:20 Speaker on Youth Soccer and "The Light Up the Pitch" Appeal, Jeff Virgo
8:30 Fund A Need Auction
8:45 Dessert and Coffee
9:00 Door Prizes and 50:50 Draw
9:30 Cashier Tables Open
9:30 to 11.00 Dancing
 
Tickets are available from August 1, 2025
 If you want to buy your tickets by e-transfer, please call or email Henry Weickert at 519-797-1388 or email at weickert@bmts.com , and he will get your information and get you all set up. Use southamptonrotary@bmts.com for "e-transfer" and enter Dinner Auction 2025 in the memo line.

Support Our Community and International Projects

We invite you to partner with us to continue making a difference through our local and international initiatives, including our 2025 Fund A Need campaign to support the "Light Up the Pitch" appeal for Helliwell Park.

You can help by:

  • Sponsoring our event (see details below)

  • Donating a gift certificate, experience, or service

  • Advertising in our event catalogue

  • Purchasing tickets and joining us for an unforgettable Dinner Auction & Dance

Our Event Chair, Trish Saunders (519-270-0170), would be delighted to discuss how we can tailor a sponsorship package to meet your specific goals

Page Download Files
About our 2025 cause: Youth Soccer.
 

This year, for our “Fund A Need” we’re proud to support youth soccer with a targeted goal: to fund new floodlights at Helliwell Park in Southampton. These upgrades will significantly extend safe evening playtime—especially in the spring and fall—and create a more inclusive environment for all players. The Soccer Club, Saugeen United, is committed to raising $500,000, with $350,000 required for floodlighting.

Helliwell Park currently hosts over 900 young athletes, and with improved lighting, that number could double, offering more children the opportunity to play, grow, and thrive through sport.

The Rotary Club of Southampton has a long-standing connection to this community hub, having helped install the original irrigation system more than 20 years ago. We're excited to continue investing in its future. More info CLICK HERE

 
 
Welcome to Our Guest Auctioneer for 2025

Don Reinhart was born in an auctioneer family. His father, Herb Reinhart, was an auctioneer, starting the family business in 1952. Growing up on the family farm, his father instilled in him the passion and knowledge to use his skills in auctioneering to contribute to the community.

Having started his career in auctioneering in 1965, Don has years of experience under his belt. He even expanded into the media industry with his television appearances in auctions. He has participated in all types of auctions, from selling restaurant equipment to salvaged cars. At the end of the day though, it’s the people that makes him love the industry. He likes interacting with people, and working with them to get the best value for items sold or bought.

Don has been happily married for 42 years, lives on a hobby farm, and enjoys watching Nascar races and (some) reality TV shows!

Thank you for visiting our Auction Web page.
If you need additional information call,  Trish Tel: 519 270 0170
or email us at southamptonrotary@bmts.com
When Prohibition took effect on January 17, 1920, many thousands of formerly legal saloons across the country catering only to men closed down. People wanting to drink had to buy liquor from licensed druggists for “medicinal” purposes, clergymen for “religious” reasons or illegal sellers known as bootleggers. Another option was to enter private, unlicensed barrooms, nicknamed “speakeasies” for how low you had to speak the “password” to gain entry so as not to be overheard by law enforcement.
 
Organized criminals quickly seized on the opportunity to exploit the new lucrative criminal racket of speakeasies and clubs and welcomed women in as patrons. In fact, organized crime in America exploded because of bootlegging. Al Capone, leader of the Chicago Outfit, made an estimated $60 million a year supplying illegal beer and hard liquor to thousands of speakeasies he controlled in the late 1920s.
 
 With thousands of underground clubs, and the prevalence of jazz bands, liquor-infused partying grew during the “Roaring Twenties,” when the term “dating” – young singles meeting without parental supervision — was first introduced.
 
Al Capone met with the CEO of Seagrams in  Windsor, ON in a secret room called a "speakeasy" because they could meet without fear of being raided by police. Speakeasy then took a whole different term when illegal bars opened up, with passwords and they called them speakeasies. Often paying off low paid police to inform them of coming raids. 
 
Nascar originated from the Speakeasies as the illegal drivers for suppliers would often  deliver their goods and then show off their souped up cars by establishing races to see who could outdrive one another. It became a matter of honour and thus Nascar in the South was created. 
 
As bootlegging enriched criminals throughout America, New York became America’s center for organized crime, with bosses such as Salvatore Maranzano, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello. At the height of Prohibition in the late 1920s, there were 32,000 speakeasies in New York alone. The most famous of them included former bootlegger Sherman Billingsley’s fashionable Stork Club on West 58th Street, the Puncheon Club on West 49th favored by celebrity writers such as Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley, the Club Intime next to the famous Polly Adler brothel in Midtown, Chumley’s in the West Village and dives such as O’Leary’s in the Bowery. Harlem, the city’s black district, had its “hooch joints” inside apartments and the famed Cotton Club, owned by mobster Owney Madden, on 142nd Street.    
 
Owners of speakeasies, not their drinking customers, ran afoul of the federal liquor law, the Volstead Act. They often went to great lengths to hide their stashes of liquor to avoid confiscation – or use as evidence at trial — by police or federal agents during raids. At the 21 Club on 21 West 52nd (where the Puncheon moved in 1930), the owners had the architect build a custom camouflaged door, a secret wine cellar behind a false wall and a bar that with the push of a button would drop liquor bottles down a shoot to crash and drain into the cellar. 
To register for tickets and your 'Secret Password' CLICK HERE

History of the Auction

Since 2003, the Southampton Rotary Club has hosted its Annual Dinner and Auction every October, with a brief pause in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The idea for the auction came from club member Ron Luciano, who also served as the auctioneer in its early years. Originally held at Chippewa Golf and Country Club (now known as Southampton Golf and Country Club), the event later became the premier fall gathering at the Walker House.

In 2025, we are reimagining the event with an exciting new twist—a dance featuring a 1920s Speakeasy theme, hosted at The Loft 1020 at Powerlink in Port Elgin.

During the COVID-enforced pause, our club pivoted to virtual events, organizing an East Coast Kitchen Party, Jazz for the Light, a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, and a series of cooking shows—each featuring an online auction to continue our fundraising impact.