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OT..Charity auction Rolling Stones autographed snooker table

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 2:32 pm
by lemur
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Rolling-Stones-Autog ... dZViewItem

Proceeds to a little girl with kidney problems.

Rob

Re: OT..Charity auction Rolling Stones autographed snooker t

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 3:28 pm
by lesbian horse
lemur wrote:http://cgi.ebay.ca/Rolling-Stones-Autog ... dZViewItem
Proceeds to a little girl with kidney problems.
Rob
doesnt say anything about a little girl with kidney problems.

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 4:02 pm
by lemur
I hadn't noticed that. Here is a cut and paste of newspaper article. I would link it but the lousy paper monopoly here requires a subscrption to read articles. I know one of the guys behind this and I can assure you this is all above board.

Rob

Times & Transcript | Metro Moncton
As published on page A1/A2 on December 8, 2005

Bids wanted for Stones’ pool table
Autographed table, used by the band backstage during Moncton mega concert, auctioned on eBay with proceeds to help 2-year-old girl recover from kidney transplant

(VIKTOR PIVOVAROV/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT)
Mike Sauter, left, and Len Blanchard are selling a snooker table, signed by the Rolling Stones, on eBay to raise money for a two-year-old girl who just had a life-saving kidney transplant.

BY ROD ALLEN
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF

If you're looking for a way to impress the gang next time they're gathered in your basement rec room and you want to help a sick little girl at the same time, there's probably no cooler way than this.

First, the background.

Last summer, Mike Sauter and Len Blanchard were busy as usual at Mike's business, Kurt's Meats on St. George St., when in walks Ron Gallant, understandably one of the regulars at Kurt's since he's a sausage vendor. You'll know Gallant if you've ever bellied up to the bar at the Centennial Park canteen in the summer or most anytime at Kent's Building Supplies out at the Power Centre.

Gallant also happens to be a pal of Shane Porter, right-hand man to Ian Fowler of the City of Moncton's Community Services Department, who just happened to be in the market for a snooker table at the time.

Fowler and company were anticipating the arrival of the Rolling Stones, a troupe of entertainers of some renown who were apparently willing come to Moncton and blow us all away on the Labour Day weekend with the best and biggest rock-and-roll bang Metro has ever seen.

They had their conditions, as rock stars are known to have. One was a special request of Keith Richards: a full-sized regulation snooker table with which the boys might relax backstage before showtime.

Anyway, here's Gallant telling Sauter all about it and Blanchard - well known in these parts for a keen ear, a kind heart and a remarkable talent for finding stuff - pipes up and says he knows just where to find one.

Blanchard and Sauter, in fact, are willing not only to deliver the table but pay for it too.

Apparently, however . . . the, er, 'meat guys' have their conditions too.

They wanted the table back after the show, complete with the Stones' signatures on the felt.

We'll let Sauter 'go live' from here.

"We didn't figure there was any way they'd sign that table just for a couple of (meat guys) so we thought maybe they'd do it for Kaley," Sauter related in an interview yesterday.

Turns out they were bang-on in a bigger way than they might have imagined.

Little Kaley Fogarty - loyal readers of The Times & Transcript are familiar with her story - turned two a month ago and has a new lease on life these days after her mom donated a kidney for a life-saving operation.

Now the family needs help with all the medical equipment necessary for her continued recovery and progress.

Sauter, Blanchard and a very special gang of pals have been helping the family in that effort for about a year now with barbecues and other fundraising events, and figured auctioning off a pool table signed by the Rolling Stones would make a dandy Christmas present.

The Rolling Stones think so too.

Mick Jagger signed 'Love, Mick,' Keith Richards signs with the comment that 'Ronnie is a lousy winner' and Ron Wood and Charlie Watts signed it 'To Kaley.'

Wood, a talented painter, includes a doodled image depicting his apparently winning snooker skills and all four signatures are beautifully rendered, says Steve Clements, a self-confessed "geek by trade" (computer programmer) who has a friend and fellow programmer named Jeff Curry who happens to be a nephew to Blanchard and . . . well, you know how it works in Moncton.

Tuesday night, Clements put the table up for auction on e-bay (you can go right to it at
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 7570331671
).

Sauter and Blanchard have sunk about $4,500 into the project and so far, Clements says there's only been one hit for a $1,000 offer, but the crew is confident that once word gets 'round, someone's going to want that table real bad, and that's good news for Kaley.

"Kaley's on her way to getting better," says Sauter, who has three young kids himself, "I feel fortunate to have healthy children, and all we want to do with this is give some other child a good chance too."