ADESA Winnipeg has earned the inaugural 2016 Eastern Auction of the Year Award from the National Auto Auction Association, which is celebrating National Auto Auction Week from Monday through Friday. 

ADESA Winnipeg — located in Winnipeg, Manitoba — is one of four auctions from each of NAAA’s membership regions to win the award, which honors excellence in community service. Each regional chapter award winner will receive $5,000 to be donated to the charity or charities of its choice.

The NAAA’s National Auction of the Year Award will go to one of these four regional award winners. The national honoree will receive an additional $10,000 to be donated at the auction's discretion. In addition, NAAA’s On the Block magazine will feature a January 2017 cover story about the auction and its charitable efforts.

The auction will also be on the cover of the 2017 NAAA Member Directory. The National Auction of the Year winner will be announced on Nov. 17, during the  Presidential Gala at the NAAA Convention/National Remarketing Conference. 

NAAA Eastern Chapter president Charles Nichols said the award for ADESA Winnipeg is truly an honor, as it came by way of a vote from the auction’s peers. He said it was his pleasure to announce the award during National Auto Auction Week.

“ADESA Winnipeg displayed the kind of dedication and support to the community and its employees that make us proud to be members of this industry and this outstanding association,” said Nichols, president of the BSCAmerica Auction Group.

 “We want to congratulate ADESA Winnipeg and thank those involved at the auction who consistently give unselfishly of their time, effort and money to so many wonderful community service organizations,” said NAAA president Mike Browning, who added he was pleased to be president during the creation of this award.

ADESA Winnipeg engages in myriad community service and charitable activities, on all levels. In 2011 for instance, ADESA Winnipeg’s 24th annual Golden Gavel Golf Classic and Charity Auction raised $250,000 for Variety, the Children’s Charity of Manitoba, the most money raised in a single day — worldwide — in the charity’s history. The auction also sponsors Variety’s Bids for Kids Charity Auctions, where donated vehicles are auctioned off and the proceeds help improve the lives of Manitoba’s children.

ADESA Winnipeg employees have donated their time and raised more than $3 million in the past year for such organizations as Ducks Unlimited, the Dream Factory, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) Association, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America and United Way, as well as local charitable organizations.

From January through June, the auction supported 31 charity events for causes such as a health science center, a clinic, Ronald McDonald houses, the local symphony, cancer care, the local ballet, Special Olympics, the Make-A-Wish foundation, freshwater fisheries, a veterans’ organization and a children’s hospital.

NAAA chief executive officer Frank Hackett said this award is designed to not only honor the efforts of NAAA members, but to boost awareness of the many worthy causes that auctions around the country support.

“I’m continually pleased to see the efforts our member auctions take to support their local community’s charities and service organizations,” Hackett said. “If we can play a small role in helping them help others, it’s a very good result.”