A painting of the Crystal City steamboat, a side-wheel wooden-hull ship built in 1887, will be one of the items auctioned off during St. Pius X High School’s Legacy Gala Dinner Auction. The event will be held Saturday, April 6, in the gym at the school, 1030 St. Pius Drive, in Crystal City.
Admission to the auction is $100 per person, which includes a dinner and cocktails catered by Andre’s. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., and the silent auction will begin at 6 p.m. The buffet dinner will be held at 8 p.m., followed by a live auction.
The steamboat painting, by artist Jackie Baumgartner of Festus, was donated by Fredericka Wegmann of Pevely, who won the painting during an auction the Rural Parish Workers of Christ the King in Cadet held last summer.
Baumgartner said she decided to paint the Crystal City steamboat because she had read a story about it in the Leader. The story was accompanied by a copy of a photograph of the boat that hangs in the entrance to Crystal City Hall.
“I thought that would be kind of neat to do because the boat was right here in the area, and St. Pius is right here in Crystal City,” she said.
Using the photograph as inspiration, Baumgartner completed the painting for Wegmann, who then decided to donate it to the St. Pius auction.
The painting is valued at $1,200, and a bid for it must be at least $700, Baumgartner said, because of the hours of work she devoted to it.
Beth Ervin, the director of the Fund for St. Pius, said the goal is to raise at least $50,000 at the dinner and auction to help fund the construction of a wellness center at St. Pius.
The money will be combined with a $199,000 grant the school received from the Jefferson Foundation in November to build the center to provide students, faculty, staff and community members with a place to exercise.
Ervin said the most money ever raised at the auction was $200,000.
In addition to the painting, items up for this year’s auction include a washer and dryer, a battery-operated children’s car and fitness equipment, Ervin said.
For more information about the auction, call 636-931-7487, ext. 135, or email gala@stpius.com.