Thirty original pieces of art, including paintings, photography and sculpture mainly created by Bermuda's Premier artists, will go under the hammer on Friday evening when The Sunshine League Children's Home holds its first-ever art auction.

The event, under the patronage of Lady Gozney and entitled 'On the Block', will take place at the ACE Gallery on Woodbourne Avenue at 7 p.m. preceded by cocktails at 6 p.m., and is designed to be a major fundraiser for the 89-year-old registered charity. Auctioneers are Andrea Casling and Holly Lewis.

"We would love to raise $50,000 from this event. Admission is free, but come with your chequebooks to make donations as well as purchasing art," Jamalda Stanford, a volunteer on the fundraising committee, says. "The pieces are all gorgeous and amazing, and three of them are huge, so we really want them to go for the best price possible."

Reserve prices range from $800 to $6200, and absentee bidding is available.

Participating artists include Robert Bassett, Vernon Clarke, Paul Doughty, Rhona Emmerson, Desmond Fountain, Molly Godet, Sheilagh Head, Scott Hill, Kelly Hunt, Jonah Jones, Heather Macdonald-Amour, Christopher Marson, Ian Macdonald-Smith, Elizabeth Mulderig, Lisa Rego, Roland Skinner, Maria Evers Smith, Nancy Smythe, Caroline Troncossi, Chesley Trott and Sharon Wilson.

In addition, Mr. Clarke is offering a commissioned piece for auction, and author Ralph Richardson has donated a signed copy of his limited-edition book, 'The Bermuda Boater'. Newstead is offering a one-night stay in a spacious suite.

The Sunshine League Children's Home has developed from humble beginnings when it just provided daily child care. Today the charity owns its own home on the outskirts of Hamilton, from where its dedicated staff provide 24-hour care for up to 16 children aged eight to 18.

The League is charged with caring for 21 percent of Bermuda's foster children, who are affected by mental health issues, sexual abuse, abandonment, and academic underperformance, as well as having parents with drug, alcohol and employability problems. "Fifty percent of our foster children had a sibling in a separate foster care home prior to being placed with us," executive director Denise Carey says. "Imagine, if you can, having a maternal sibling within 12 square miles of you with whom you have never lived. Nor has either of you lived with your mother or father. By age eight both children have lived in two foster homes, but never together."

Of the foster children currently at the children's home, Ms Carey reveals at least 76 percent represent cross-generational involvement with the Department of Child and Family Services.

"Our community continues to battle generation after generation of families reliant on our foster care system," she says. "The Sunshine League is committed to breaking the cycle of dependency by fostering independent young adults who benefit from the system, and successfully transition out of it."

It costs $242 a day to house a child at the King Street home. Creating a way to reduce the need for foster care by 50 percent will save the League hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and allow a change in focus to much-needed academic and psychological services.

"Today the Home must address the violent culture increasingly plaguing our shores," Ms Carey says. "Our remit has forcibly grown from providing housing for Bermuda's foster children to teaching specific coping skills on bullying; surviving abusive relationships; abstinence and anger management. The seriousness of these issues confronts us daily.

"If The Sunshine League continues to be supported financially, and our programmes remain targeted to the development of life skills, the provision of academic supports, and insistence on psychological services for each of our children, then their risk of becoming enthralled by offending behaviours, or becoming unwitting victims, is reduced. If we fail in our mission, the children we service today stand a high risk of being the children we read about in future newspapers."

The Home has fulfilled the criteria for accreditation set by the Bermuda National Standards Committee.

Said Ms Carey: "Our children and our community deserve, and ought to demand, nothing short of the provision of best quality service, and with each year we are confident we will move closer to realising our goal."

Stressing the importance of the community's financial support for The Sunshine League, the executive director concluded: "Donations will bring about positive change for the thirteen children currently in our care, but beyond that, such gifts are an investment in the future for an anticipated 250 children and families whom we will service over the next decade."

With its all-important accreditation, the charity hopes that Friday's fundraising auction will not only be a great financial success, but also broaden community awareness of what it does and what its needs are. "It promises to be an excellent night," Ms Stanford confirms.

• For further information telephone 504-6096.