Hospitality management students to auction off hotel stays, dining certificates, and other items
A beer-making seminar by Anheuser Busch’s corporate brewmaster and a tasting of various beers from the company will kick off a silent auction hosted by the Hospitality Management Student Association on Monday, Dec. 6, at 6 p.m., at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, StellarOne Building, 2280 Kraft Drive, Blacksburg.
“We anticipate auctioning off about 50 products and services with a net value of nearly $20,000,” says Rick Perdue, head of the hospitality and tourism management department in the Pamplin College of Business. The items include hotel stays in New York, Chicago, Baltimore, and Charlotte; resort stays at the Greenbrier and Opryland; restaurant gift certificates; an iPad; wine; Hokie memorabilia; and gift baskets.
The students, who will prepare and serve appetizers and hors d’oeuvres for the event, organize the annual auction, Perdue says, to raise funds to support their travel to the American Hotel and Lodging Association show in New York and the National Restaurant Show in Chicago, as well as other organizational activities throughout the year.
“We reach out to our corporate friends to ask them to donate products and services that the students then auction,” Perdue says. The beer-making seminar by Anheuser Busch corporate brewmaster George Reisch and beer tasting, he adds, are the company’s contributions to the event, which is being sponsored by Hilton Worldwide.
For more information about the silent auction, please contact Hospitality Management Student Association president Samantha Smarte or Lindsey Ramey in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at (540) 231-5515.
