Children's Auction going more public than ever with Tanger location

TILTON — Of all the 39 years of the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction, the four-day fundraiser held last year sticks out. Due to the pandemic, the usual small army of volunteers was pared down to a skeleton crew, mostly separated from one another, and the public was not invited to observe the festive goings on.

For the 40th Children’s Auction, which will kick off on Dec. 7, organizers are excited for a return to normal — and a location the likes of which they’ve never had before. The auction will set up at Tanger Outlets, in a nearly 13,000-square-foot storefront that was recently home to the Spirit Halloween costume shop.

Eric Proulx, general manager at Tanger, said welcoming the auction to his mall satisfies a long-held goal.

“I’ve been trying to work with the auction for quite some time,” Proulx said, and this year the addition of a seasonal tenant meant there was a large vacancy at just the right time for the auction to move in.

The timing was just right, and on a number of fronts, because the auction will benefit from one of the busiest times of year for the mall. Proulx said that a half-million shoppers will visit the property between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Most come from within a 30-minute drive, but some will come from across state or even country lines to do their holiday shopping at a mall that doesn’t apply sales tax.

No doubt, many people who have never heard of the auction before will learn about it by wandering past the windows of the storefront and seeing all the joyful activity within. The auction takes place on a set, as the action is broadcast via television, radio and livestream.

“We’ve never been in a space that had that much foot traffic for something other than the auction,” said Jaimie Sousa, chair of the auction’s board of directors. And those people will be in the holiday spirit, and in the ideal place to purchase an item to donate to the auction.

It will work the other way, too. The auction is a draw in itself, as people seek it out to volunteer, donate items, or to pick up the items they’ve won.

Last year, due to safety concerns, it took place on a closed set. Sousa said she’s excited to fling the doors back open.

“We’re celebrating our 40th, we want to have more interaction with the public,” Sousa said. People are welcome to come in to observe, and the live phone banks, staffed with rotating groups of community members, are returning, too. Organizers are cooking up more ways to entice people to experience the auction first-hand.

Donations of items to be auctioned off are already being accepted at the guest services office at the mall. Popular auction items include experiences, gift cards, power tools, household items and, of course, toys. Or, as Jennifer Kelley, executive director of the auction, said, “It’s anything you would want to give to someone else.”