The 25th Annual FCBA Charity Auction (a joint production of the FCBA’s Young Lawyers Committee and the FCBA Foundation) is happening on Thursday, November 7, 2014, from 6:30-10:00 p.m. in the Sphinx Ballroom at the Almas Temple, 1315 K Street, N.W., Washington.When you go – and you WILL go (because Davina wants you to) – you’ll get a prize book to guide you through the evening. Since it’s going to be unbelievably loud and crowded when you get there, and since they’re giving away two drinks for free (not to mention free food), and since it will be important to see and be seen, and since there are so many prizes that the book is 35 single-space pages long, you’re going to have a tough time navigating the prize book on the fly.

No problem. Here’s an advance copy to peruse at your leisure through the day leading up to the Big Event. (It looks enough like that contract from counsel for the other side of that big deal you’re working on that you can keep it up on your screen all day long and none of your colleagues will know.)

And you’ll probably need the whole day to digest the cornucopia of bitchin’ stuff available to the highest bidder. We recommend that you get started early.

As has been the case in past auctions, there’s something here for everybody. Tons of opportunities to eat at restaurants you’ve read about, and some you haven’t! Travel near and far! Sporting events! Home entertainment! Personal fitness! Theater tickets, art, personal (and canine) photography! Cool media stuff!

Too much levity for you? Fine, there’s non-levity galore –no fewer than three chances at getting advice for setting up your will. And if you’re looking for a business-related item (Why? We don’t know, but maybe after you’ve had your two free drinks you’ll start worrying about such things), how about a telecom dictionary, or a copy of the NAB’s “Legal Guide to Broadcast Law”, or a six-month Total Access Package from everybody’s friends at Berry Best?

If you want to increase your chances of winning, the Auction organizers have YOU in mind. There are a ton of additional prizes being raffled off – and, if you’re the first person to put a bid in on a silent auction item, your name will automatically be entered into the “First Bid Frenzy Raffle”. And if, for whatever reason, you can’t make it to the Big Event, there’s also an online auction that you can click into right now!

Seriously, if you’re not into all this yet, you should get on it ASAP. Time’s a-wasting.

The beneficiaries of the Auction will be BUILD Metro DC, which offers a four-year program that targets high school students in low-income communities who are not on-track academically and are at the highest risk of dropping out of school. BUILD equips these youth for high school, college, and career success. “BUILDers” receive extensive academic training, including classroom tutoring, free SAT and ACT prep courses, college application guidance, and financial aid support. BUILD’s efforts have had a demonstrable impact on the lives of these students, with 100 percent of BUILD Metro DC seniors having graduated high school and enrolled in a college or university. The FCBA Foundation will use proceeds from the Charity Auction to support its annual college scholarship program.