The annual Wildcat Gala and Hall of Fame induction ceremony, usually known as an “evening of celebration and philanthropy,” is an important night for CWU Athletics. 

However, COVID-19 has caused the 2021 Wildcat Gala to become something different than normal due to restrictions..  

“The Wildcat Gala is a fundraising element that partners with the year’s Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony,” Director of Athletics Dennis Francois said.

According to Francois, while the Hall of Fame induction ceremony and auctions have been going on since 2013, the “Wildcat Gala” is a new event. 

“The year before I started working here, they started introducing silent auction items to the ceremony and that evolved into a live auction event in 2019,” Francois said. “[2019] was also the first year the event became known as the Wildcat Gala.” 

According to Francois, the gala was not held last year because of  COVID-19.

While the event was recently renamed, the focus of the event is still the induction of the year’s Hall of Fame class. 

“The gala was created to elevate the status of the night. While we take the chance to fundraise during the night, the main focus is celebrating the Hall of Fame inductees that have contributed so much to CWU athletics,” Francois said.  

According to Troy Nealey, associate athletic director of development, even though the main event of the night is the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, the gala is still one of the most important fundraising events for CWU Athletics. 

“The funds from the auction go into a student-athlete scholarship known as the Hall of Fame endowment,” Nealey said. 

The endowment goes to one male and one female athlete, said Nealey. The scholarship is incredibly important.  

“Nominees for the endowment are given by each sport,” Nealey said. “The recipients are then chosen based on who most represents the qualities and core values of CWU athletics.” 

With over $75,000 raised in 2019, Nealey said that the Wildcat Athletic Association has the goal of raising over $100,000 in this year’s gala. 

“This year is going to be a bit different,” Nealey said, “rather than a combined event, we are going to hold the auction and induction as separate events.”

According to Nealey, the auction will be held virtually on May 9-16 while the Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held in October during the homecoming game. 

“The pandemic has gone longer than expected, but we couldn’t go another year without raising funds for our student athletes,” Nealey said. 

According to Nealey, the separation of the Gala and induction ceremony means that this year’s gala will solely be focused on fundraising. 

“There are a lot of good items in this year’s auction, like a signed Super Bowl XLVIII jersey, that people will have to constantly check on to see if they are the top bidder,” Nealey said. 

Nealey compared this year’s gala to eBay, saying that it will be a week-long bidding battle between participants.

“You won’t have the same feel with a virtual auction as an in-person auction because you aren’t going to be in the moment,” Francois said. “But people will still feel competitive to win the items.” 

According to Nealey the Wildcat Athletic Association is shifting from an in person to virtual auction very well because their website has a feature that allows them to hold the virtual auction.

“The only real problem we are facing is reminding people about why the auction is worth participating in,” Nealey said. 

According to Francois, it was easy to get participation before because the induction ceremony attendees were an already captive audience. But now they have to get people to participate on their own.  

“We won’t know how the shift from in person to virtual will affect participation until we get to the event,” Nealey said, “but we are hoping that the event will be successful so that we can continue to support the future of our student-athletes.”