The Global Remarketing Opportunities for Women (GROW), a professional group for businesswomen and female entrepreneurs in the vehicle remarketing industry, will hold its first fund-raising auction on Aug. 20-21 at the Automotive Remarketing Alliance’s (ARA) annual summer conference.

The event, which starts at a 5 pm reception on Aug. 20 at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort in Frisco, Texas, officially starts the ARA’s Summer Round Table that runs at the resort through Aug. 22.

Open to all attendees, the GROW silent auction will offer a QR code for instant bidding on most of the donated items, with about five items offered live at the reception. Participants may place bids until the end of the day Aug. 21.

Money raised from the auction will fund 10 Audit and Compliance Training (ACT) scholarships and 10 Certified Automotive Remarketer (CAR) scholarships. ACT and CAR are the alliance’s two premier professional education and development programs that provide certified status to members of the automotive remarketing industry.

Scholarships will be awarded evenly to women and men applicants. Instructions to apply will be offered through the QR code. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 13 and GROW will announce scholarship recipients on Sept. 20.

“This is our way of giving back to education and community,” said Shelly Frank, a co-founder of GROW and the director of national accounts at DAA Southwest and DAA Rockies. “We will have an auctioneer who will be auctioneering off the live items.”

Among the live items so far to be auctioned off:

• A trip to the eastern Caribbean island of St. Maarten/St. Martin

• A trip to Las Vegas, Nevada

• Jewelry

• Signed NFL jerseys

• A Rogue guitar signed by the American country music duo of Big & Rich, and a Chromocast hard case.

“We wanted to do this educational benefit auction in support of ARA’s programs because they have been so supportive of all of GROW’s initiatives,” said GROW Treasurer and council member Jane Morgan, who is a vehicle auction consultant. “We are encouraging both men and women to apply as a thank you to all the male advocates and sponsors of GROW. We are grateful to our entire support system of women and men.”

GROW officially launched at the 2023 Summer Roundtable last August in Chicago, as a group affiliated with the Automotive Remarketing Alliance. Since then, GROW has provided webinars, educational sessions, networking events, and professional resources for members.

For More Info:2024 ARA Summer Roundable agenda and registration