DMA auction offers variety of items

Go to Mardi Gras, and you may come home with a stash of cheap souvenir beads.

Come to the Downtown Merchants Association auction, and come home with an assortment of goodies from participating businesses, if you're the winning bidder.

The 15th annual auction, built around a festive Mardi Gras theme, will be held Feb. 23 at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 318 S. Spanish in downtown Cape Girardeau.

The auction starts at 6 p.m. with hors d'oeuvres provided by Port Cape Girardeau. The live auction will start at 8 p.m. with a silent auction when the doors open.

"We always have a good variety of items for the auction -- clothing, jewelry, furniture, collectibles, art prints and gift certificates," said Dionne Hoffmeister, who is coordinating the auction for a fourth straight year. The auction is a big fundraiser for the downtown area. Over the past 14 years, it has funneled more than $190,000 into improvements for the area and helped with such projects as Christmas decorations, the annual Christmas Lights Parade, the Rose City Musical Festival and sidewalk and street projects.

"A number of the brick crosswalks, flower plantings, benches and historic signs have been paid for by the Downtown Merchants Association," said Don Greenwood, president of the DMA.

In addition, funds have been used to build the downtown pavilion, lighting along the riverfront wall and a number of other restoration and beautification projects.

With the revival of the Independence Day fireworks, some funds may be designated for the fireworks.