Conference attendees have fun while raising scholarship dollars

Copyeditors fill the room across the hall from the banquet, ACES President Teresa Schmedding shouts, “15 minutes” and the chatter continues.

In 15 minutes the bidding ends at the silent auction of more than 200 items donated to help raise money for the ACES Education Fund.

The result: nearly $3,500 from the bidding. Add that to the $575 raised in a live auction for a donated iPad, $831 raised in Wednesday night’s spelling bee and $7,800 from table donation pledges and that’s about $13,000 raised for scholarships.

And the fundraising continues. ACES 2014 presenter Steve Buttry, digital transformation editor at Digital First Media, is doing a crowdsourced fundraiser for the ACES Education Fund on a dare from Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten. Weingarten wants Buttry to change the name of his blog, The Buttry Diary.

Weingarten tweeted asking his followers to “to overwhelm @stevebuttry with entreaties to REALLY change the blog to ‘Mmm. Smooth, Buttry Goodness.’ It’s way butter. Er, better.”

So Buttry started a Crowdrise campaign to change the name with the money going to the ACES Education fund. As of 5 p.m. March 25, the campaign had $640 in pledges.

Currently. the Education Fund funds five scholarships a year for a total of $6,500 a year. However, Merrill Perlman, president of the ACES Education Fund, hopes that ACES can expand its scholarship offerings in the future. The generosity of ACES members and friends can make that happen.

So what great items did you miss at the auction?

1. Cutest prize — A stuffed momma and baby panda and tote from the San Diego Zoo.
2. Vegas souvenir — Typo’ed Vegas shirt.
3. For the 21 and up members — Acronym wine.
4. Celebrity swag — signed copies of Grammar Girl’s word lists.
5. It’s the New York Times — my personal favorite NY Times swag was the totes, but there was also some great crossword-themed items.
6. Best bling — who doesn’t want a semi-colon dangling from each ear?
7. Comic relief — no one appreciates a grammar joke more than the attendees of ACES.

If you plan to come back to the ACES gathering next year, be sure to keep your eye out for items like these that your fellow copy editors might enjoy. Save them, donate them and buy them, while also contributing to a great cause.