By Sharyn Maust
Gazette Managing Editor
Your birds need a home? Let the bidding begin!
The Bedford County Arts Council and Bedford County Habitat for Humanity have teamed up again for a silent auction to benefit the two organizations.
This year there are handmade boxes as well birdhouses on display at the arts center in Bedford. The show and sale opens today, and bidding closes at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 29.
This is the fourth time the two organizations have teamed up. The first birdhouse auction was in 1997; a second one was held in 2004 and the last one in 2006.
Habitat constructed 87 of the birdhouses and boxes and more than half of those were made by the husband and wife team of Melvin Huston and Karon Ritchey. She is the acting president of Habitat. Another 20-plus were constructed by Ted Johnson.
"Our original idea was that we would cut the wood and have our friends and Habitat volunteers put them together. That got way too complicated, so we started assembling them and pretty soon, we had filled up all the space we had," Ritchey said. "Besides, my husband and I are sort of perfectionists so we just kept going," she said.
Your Building Center in Bedford and Home Depot in Altoona contributed the wood.
There are varying birdhouse designs and sizes, from high rises to southwestern adobe casas. The same is true of the wooden boxes. And some participants contributed their own birdhouses.
Starting in March, local craftsmen, artists and even youngsters signed out the boxes and houses to turn them into works of art. The results are everything from bark-covered cottages to watermelon slices, flowers, stars, cupcakes, mailboxes in a planter with real flowers and pun-prone "birdies' 19th hole." Some are for regular outdoor use, some are decorative objects.
"We hope there's something that appeals to everyone," Ritchey said.
Both organizations have been hard hit by the recession. "Habitat is really looking for money to start another home," Ritchey noted.
The birdhouses and boxes are now on display during regular arts center hours, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Just stop at the center at 137 E. Pitt St., sign up for a number and make your bids. Winning bidders will be notified after the close of bidding.
The center's walls also are not empty during this show. A multi-panel pastel watercolor piece with words by Cindy Inman decorates the walls. It was a submission for a 9/11 exhibit.