Swampscott High holds annual Television Auction

SWAMPSCOTT – Ringing telephones, receptionists calmly jotting down bids, every item perfectly lit to show off its beauty. It looks so easy on television. Backstage at the Swampscott High School Television Auction on Thursday night, it was a different story.”I’ve been working 15-hour days all week; 12 items came in just today,” said Acadia Willis. She quickly traversed a couch to check if there were one or two framed needlepoint pictures, while TV Production Teacher Tom Reid waited to see if they were holding a live bid on a nonexistent item. “Two!” Willis said triumphantly as she stopped filing through a pile of framed pictures leaning against the couch. Crisis averted.The annual Swampscott High School TV Auction is the TV production classes’ main source of annual funding and their most-watched event of the year. With community members joining student and alumni hosts for the 12-hour live broadcast over four days, over 400 items donated for bid, a goal of raising around $15,000 and at least 20 students working on the production at all times, it is also the students’ biggest hands-on project.”It’s all these kids, they’re the ones who make this show,” said host and high school Junior Custodian George Arrington after his “nerve-wracking” shift. “They’re here from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.; they even sneak in on the weekends if they can.”The students really do run the show. Students are in the studio running the cameras, they are in the control booth deciding what the cameras should show, and they answer phones in the green room and record and keep tallies of the bids.Not that there isn’t a large amount of improvisation.By Thursday, the students realized that they needed somebody who knew what they were talking about when they presented an item for bid. But that could be difficult, especially for the items of more erudite value.”You can’t get this anywhere. Or maybe you can?” said student Chris Thomsen, recruited to describe an enlarged portrait of Rajon Rondo on the cover of Sports Illustrated. “Well, the Celtics ?Big Three’ won’t last for long and he’s going to be sticking around, so this is good.””It seems to be going the best in 12 years,” said Reid, momentarily caught as he left the control room to speak with the phone operators. “But I don’t really know. We haven’t had time to stop and total everything up.”