ATLANTA, Ga. (WALB) – A few years back, former President Jimmy Carter autographed a pair of his old running shoes.
Ka-ching. They went for $11,500 at an annual fundraising auction for the Carter Center, helping the Atlanta-based nonprofit carry on its do-good operations around the globe. Among the other items bid on that year: an oil painting by Jimmy Carter that fetched $600,00.
In other years, the auctions included bottles of the former first couple’s homemade wine, a four-poster bed and wood duck decoys crafted by the ex-commander and chief, a baseball signed by Carter and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and a 1973 photo of Rosalynn Carter with Elvis Presley.
This weekend marks the 32nd year that the Carter Center, founded by the former first couple, has held auctions as part of its annual retreat for donors.
Rosalynn Carter passed away last year and the former president, after more than a year in hospice, is approaching his 100th birthday. But the global center that was so much a part of the couple’s legacy has yet to run out of things to offer: campaign memorabilia, artwork and gifts given post-White House to the Carters.
Carter Center officials often can’t fathom what items might draw the highest bids. But anything that belonged to the famously frugal Carters could become a fundraising gem.
Consider one package being auctioned at this year’s event in San Diego: a weathered metal bucket with partially squeezed tubes of old paints and a pitcher of art brushes used by the former president in his oil-painting days, along with a signed print of one of his paintings. Estimated value by the center: $2,000.
Officials say they don’t have space to display all the items in the center’s collection, which has ballooned over the more than 40 years since the couple left Washington, traveling the world on peace and health missions and Habitat for Humanity builds. In far-flung capitals and tiny towns, the Carters were given gifts by those they visited, from government officials to local artisans.
“Every trip they went on, someone gave them something,” said Paige Alexander, the Carter Center’s chief executive.
Every year the center selects some from that stockpile to auction off along with other items offered up by donors and supporters. “We have a lot of memorabilia,” Alexander said.
Retreat events have raised about $2 million a year in recent times and $46 million cumulatively over more than three decades. A 2013 oil painting of a bald eagle by Jimmy Carter netted $225,000 at last year’s auction in Atlanta.
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