The first public television station in Kansas continues to thrive through its 45th year and its continued success is made possible with the support of both viewers and volunteers.

KTWU held the, “Lights, Camera, Auction” event in order to raise funds for the station. The auction involved people and organizations donating items to auction off, with the proceeds going to the station. The station also relies heavily on volunteers in order to raise funds that help to keep the station running and viewers who contribute donations to the station during these events.

“The reality is, whether it’s an auction or a pledge drive if we had to pay that many people to be here…we just couldn’t afford it,” said Cindy Barry.

Volunteer Beverly Frydrych said she enjoys helping the station, and started because a friend worked at the station.

“We are a station that has truly been blessed for decades because volunteers really have become a really, really instrumental part in the station being successful,” said Barry.

At this year’s auction there is a challenge between Washburn and Emporia State Universities. Both schools donated merchandise in order to see which college’s alumni could raise the larger amount of money.

Barry said that over the years at the auction, usually at least one thing goes wrong, and one year all of the computers crashed 90-minutes before they were supposed to go on air. Those who had been involved in the auction longer got markers and boards to help run the auction, Luckily the computers came back on.

Chris Gallagher, director of the auction, explained that there was a lot of excitement over new items from small towns in the region. During the auction there were sections devoted to small towns like the “Holton Half Hour,” “Gotta Lot of Ottawa” and “Bit of Burlingame.”

Eugene Williams, general manager of KTWU, said they were hoping that the auction would be able to do better than it did last year, which was difficult because of the economy.