Auction raises $26,890 to address hunger and homelessness

The 2014 Hunger and Homelessness Auction raised $26,890 in November for five area charities that provide services to those in need. Funding will go to Youth Rights Media, the Clifford Beers Clinic, Continuum of Care, New Haven Farms, and Liberty Community Services, said auction organizers Kenneth Vera and Zainab Jaji, both second-year medical students.

Auctioneers at the 22nd annual auction included James Abrahams, M.D., professor of diagnostic radiology; Jack Hughes, M.D., professor of medicine; Michael K. O’Brien, M.D., Ph.D., assistant clinical professor of surgery (gastrointestinal); Bill Stewart, Ph.D., associate professor and section chief of anatomy and experimental surgery; and Benjamin Doolittle, M.D. ’97, M.Div. ’94, associate professor of medicine and of pediatrics.

Among the items on the block were pizza and beer for eight at BAR, plus “fascinating conversations on bioethics with” Mark Mercurio, M.D., professor of pediatrics; a three-hour Thimble Island tour with Richard Mattson, M.D., professor emeritus and senior research scientist in neurology; a round trip by limo for seven students to New York City with O’Brien for a visit to the Body Worlds Exhibit and dinner in the city; Stewart’s annual offering of a “Beef and Beer Dinner” at his home; and, again from Stewart, “an elegant bow tie from my personal collection. Worn in the lab—but not too often.”