Dogs draw in $601 for computers

As the event wrapped up and the last songs were being sung on karaoke, parents were wrapping up uneaten candies and cupcakes, and two little puppies being auctioned off that night had yet to get one bid — they would have to be returned.

The puppies were being auctioned off for the Ethel R. Dwyer Middle School fall technology fundraiser. The fall auction was the kickoff of the PTSA fundraiser to replace outdated computers for the school, but it was looking pretty grim until the last minute.

“Do you have a doggie for sale?” asked Gary Joyce, an eighth-grade teacher at Dwyer. “We’ll take one.”

At $301, exactly $1 more than the starting bid, Joyce won the puppy for his daughter, Larissa Joyce, and made the first donation for the new computers.

“I’m really happy,” Larissa said.

The 8-year-old said she was surprised by her father’s 11th-hour decision, but had been begging her parents to get a puppy.

Her father said the dog would be hers, and she promptly chose the female puppy but didn’t have a name ready.

Larissa wasn’t the only one surprised. Her older sister, 11-year-old Alexandra Joyce, a student at Dwyer, said the family already has a larger dog, a terrier and schnauzer mix named Muppet.

“I’m very happy, because I never thought we’d get another dog,” Alexandra said. “I still can’t believe we won.”

The female dog wasn’t the only one that got an 11th-hour bid.

The male puppy was bought by sixth-grader Olivia Covert, who called Janet Doe, the executive vice president of the PTSA, as she was pulling into her driveway on the way home from the event and asked if the dog was still available.

Olivia has saved up $300 of her own money to purchase the dog, Doe said.

The fundraiser brought in $601 for the new computers.

The two puppies were donated by veterinarian Allison Naito, who runs Huntington Pet Vet.

The half-purebred silky terrier and Pekingese mix are valued at $800.

This is the third year the PTSA has done a fall technology fundraiser; it auctioned off diamonds and surfboards in the past.

“With all the budget cuts, we still have to do this stuff,” Doe said.

The association has already replaced 90 computers at the middle school and has one more computer lab to go, Doe said.

The school will also hold a jog-a-thon fundraiser in March to try to raise the remaining funds for the computers.