Senior Steering Committee auctioned several groups of students at the annual Senior Auction Thursday, November 13.

“The Bodyguards” (Matt Tozeski, Tyler Hatton, and Sam Factor) and renowned juggler Garret Maglio, both netted $42, the highest bids of the night. The “Singing Cookie Men” (Sean Watkins and Chris Lang) were sold for $41.

“To prepare for our performance we wrote a poem; a lot of it was improv, but we rehearsed once or twice,” Factor said. “I had bought seniors when I was a freshman so I wanted to give [our buyers] as fun of an experience as I had.”

The auction, hosted by teachers Nicole Ruffo and Emily Philbin, raised $600, half of which the seniors contributed to the Holiday Giving drive. The other $300 will be kept for the Senior Steering Committee.

The seniors offered bidders an assortment of favors, including serenading the bidders as they walk down the hallway or bringing them food periodically throughout the day. Most groups provided unique services for their buyer, such as having a didgeridoo played for them in the hallways, courtesy of “Brianna Burns and the Didgeridoo” (sold for $25) or having their day narrated for them by “Men in Vests” (Jonny Manousaridis and Andrew Carlucci, sold for $20).

Nate Morrell and his group, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” decided they would use costumes and dance inspired by the famous fairy tale to entertain their buyer.

“I’m going to come dancing out like a ballerina,” Morrell said, Thursday night before the auction. “Whoever we get auctioned off to, we buy them breakfast and follow them around and play music.”

After the ballet performance, a lengthy bid battle ended with Morrell and his dwarves (Jocelyn Pietro, Allison Wrin, Colleen Barry, Mia Partridge, Jess Arpino, Alyssa Waterman and Mary Rousseau) getting sold for $40. This amount fell short of expectations for Morrell, who expected to be bought “in the thousands, at least.”

Instead of using music or dancing, Johnny Gillespie stirred up a storm of bidders from the audience with his clever pick-up lines.

“Hey girl, are you in prison?” Gillespie asked the audience, pacing the stage. “Because you’re my Guantanamo Bae!”

After promising to carry his buyer up the stairs if they got too tired to climb, Gillespie was sold for $21.

“The Military”, another group being sold off during the auction, were well-known for their red-wagon “tank”, complete with paper cannon.

“We’re going to offer the person who buys us breakfast and lunch, and we’re going to pull them around in the tank to their classes,” senior Kate Foster said. “I’d say if we got bought for fifteen bucks or over, I’d be pumped.”

Exceeding her expectations, Foster’s group was sold for $30.

Other auctioned groups included “The Cross-Country Girls”, consisting of Megan Walsh, Sam Mauro, Beth Waters, Ariana Nodoushani, Olivia Mott, Monica Kierney, and Natalie Lambert.
“[Our act] combines two of our favorite things: Taylor Swift and running,” Walsh said.

“It’s all about how Megan Walsh is trouble because she’s too fast,” Mauro said. “…We’re hoping to be bought for maybe two million.”

Food was a popular theme for this year’s auction; “The Daytime Foodies” (sold for $15), bakers Alexandra Shaffer and Allie Ryan (sold for $35), and the aforementioned “Singing Cookie Men” were groups centered around treats delivered periodically throughout the school day.

“The Backstreet Boys” (Joe McCuine, Quinn Cohen, Trevor Casellini, Cesar Coelho, Zach Foster, Garrett Scholl, and Josh Clark), dressed in classy all-white, performed with dancing and lip syncing and were sold for $30.

The lowest bid of five dollars went to John Kelly and Evan Perkins, who respectively wore a rubber horse head and a rubber unicorn head and guaranteed to commentate their buyer’s entire day wearing them. They were purchased by senior Cesar Coelho.