Friends of Lake Panorama is conducting a $70,000 fundraising drive for playground equipment, to be split evenly between Boulder and Shady beaches. The planned April 18 Beach Ball, postponed to August 1, will be a major fundraising event for this project. Nearly 100 items for auctions and a raffle have been donated for the 2020 Beach Ball.

Five items from Paradise Pads have been offered to Friends at cost, with all money raised above those amounts going to the playground fund. To get these items into buyers’ hands this spring, a silent online auction will be held. Available are an inflatable standup paddleboard, a rolled foam pad, an inflatable yoga mat, and two inflatable pads—one 6’x8’ in size, the other 6’x13’.

For the auction, Friends is using 32auctions, an online platform geared to nonprofits. Bidding will begin April 16 at 9 a.m. and close April 20 at 8 p.m. Bidders will need to create an account with just their name and email address, then will receive an email with an auto-generated screen name and request to confirm the account setup. A step-by-step video of the signup process is available on the Friends website and Facebook page. Accounts can be created at any time.

Once winning bidders are determined on the auction site, final details will be handled locally by Friends, including product pickup and payments by check or cash. Auction details and a link to the auction site are available at bit.ly/friends-auction.