Interview by Roy L Hales, Written version/Production by De Clarke

Hollyhock Retreat Centre is holding a Silent Auction (online) this year from April 10th to May 12th. Proceeds from the auction will go to fund scholarships for Hollyhock events and programmes. A wide range of “lots” have been donated by a variety of individuals and businesses.

Roy Hales interviewed Rhys-Thorvald Hansen about the auction, its purpose, the fundraising target, and items being auctioned.

So what is this Silent Auction all about?

The silent auction is about investing in the Hollyhock Scholarship Fund. And it’s also about celebrating the different offerings, and the generosity of our community

We’re inviting people in the extended Hollyhock network. They’re donating coaching sessions, vacation homes… We even have some fun things like — this one isn’t listed yet, it’s gonna come out next week — somebody’s gonna name a character in their upcoming book, after the winning bidder!

And all of the funds that are raised from this are gonna go to support the Hollyhock Scholarship Fund and help bring more people into the learning space, both to improve the room and the experience for the participants.

So how much are you trying to raise, and what will it accomplish?

We’re trying to raise $30,000 — although if we go above that, it’s fantastic — we’ll get even more people up.

But what that helps cover is accommodation, meals, tuition for scholarship applicants. I can’t put an exact number on like, the number of people for that $30,000, because every, every program is different. But last year Hollyhock granted over $150,000 in scholarships to 231 people. Most of our scholarship awards are for partial tuition to help offset the costs.

The Hollyhock Leadership Institute has a higher amount of scholarship support, because of the work that they’re trying to do. But almost every single program has some level of scholarship support; applicants when they’re registering for whatever program, they pick which one they want, and then ask for the support, and it goes to a committee.

Last year it was about 10 to 12% of all participants in Hollyhock programs — so that includes our Vancouver programs as well as the ones on Cortes.

And of course we have the Cortes Island specific scholarship fund as well. We have a designated scholarship fund that is specifically for Cortesians, so that it’s not competing out of the same general pool, and we can make sure that the programs are accessible to people who live here.

What are some of the other things being auctioned?

I was really excited that we had a bunch of Cortes Island businesses join us this year. You know, we’ve got Blossom’s Chocolate, that’s already up. We’ve got the Bioluminescence Kayak Tour. But I can also tell you, we’re adding new items every week until the auction ends on May 12th.

So we also have friends of Cortes Island, they have put up a basket that will be going out soon. As well as a West Coast Experience boat tour with Quadra Island Boat Tours. That one’s gonna go live on Monday. I’m really excited about it –a private tour!

We were trying to get a mix, we have these week long vacation home stays, but also we have some Hollyhock presenters that have donated either coaching, or access to their their courses. We really wanted to focus on unique experiences that we can invite people into.

Can you tell us a little bit about the people receiving the scholarships?

I’ve been really fortunate to have quite a few conversations with scholarship recipients; and I actually first came to Hollyhock on a scholarship as well, so this feels really personal to me. You know, I can share from my own experience that when I first came up and was offered that opportunity, I had just quit a job in my industry, and was feeling sort of lost, and a loss of community.

And a friend said, “You should come. You should come check this out.” And I didn’t really have the funds to pull it off, but I got the scholarship support to come up — and I felt really warmly welcomed.

Thinking about some of our other recipients, I don’t want to go into too many details or specifics ’cause we wanna respect their privacy, But it’s really quite a range of ages and life experiences. We do focus and prioritize on folks who are from the global majority, people of colour, folks with disabilities, elders, youth, people who’ve never had the chance to come to Hollyhock before. Really looking at, how can we use the scholarship fund to diversify the room?

You know, it, it’s not really intended as like, “Oh, we’re helping you out,” it’s more like “We’re helping all of us out.” If we’re gonna be looking at social issues, if we’re gonna be looking at healing, that has to be looked at holistically. And so the more people we can invite into the room, the better the solutions we’re gonna come up with.

Are you getting much feedback from the bidders?

It’s still warming up. We expect a lot of the heat to be happening in the last, like 10 days or so. But I can share that people who’ve contributed in other ways or in previous campaigns, have shared that they have been contributing to this because they know that the relationships that people build when they’re here, and the skills, really have a positive impact.

There’s the spirit of generosity and philanthropy, but it’s also about like, “How can we be investing in leaders who are gonna continue and carry on the really positive work that’s going out in the world?” Particularly people are focused on climate and our climate work. So how can we be making our climate programming accessible to frontline climate advocates?

I am only six, seven months into my role here at Hollyhock and just getting to know a lot of the members of our community — and I’ve been really struck by people’s generosity, in the contributions as well as the bids. And, it’s an honor to help steward this campaign, to sort of invite the community to invest in the community wellbeing.

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[Photo Credits: Feature Image, participants in Hollyhock program, and Join Hands campaign launch image courtesy of Hollyhock; kayak image by Cortes Kayaks; whale image by  Quadra Island Boat Tours.  Cortes home by donor;  Tofino by donor. ]