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Canadian All Around Auctioneer’s Championship back after a few years off

Frederick Bodnarus from Saskatoon was this year’s winner
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The Canadian All Around Auctioneer’s Championship took place on Feb. 4 in Red Deer. (Photos courtesy of Black Press)

Sponsored by Auctioneer’s Association of Alberta, the Canadian All Around Auctioneer’s Championship took place on Feb. 4 in Red Deer. This was the first one they’ve had since 2020, due to COVID-19.

“We had competitors from three provinces. There was 15 competitors in total in the all-around competition,” said President of The Auctioneers Association of Alberta Shane Menzak.

The championship was held in conjunction with their convention.

This year’s winner was Frederick Bodnarus from Saskatoon.

There was a panel of five judges, who judge based on personal appearance, professionalism and more.

“They go through the first round. Each participant sells four items and they get judged and marked. After the first round they take the top five out of the group of 15 and they come back and sell another four items in the final round. Then they’re judged again and the scores are added together, and then the top winner of both rounds gets the championship,” said Menzak.

Each competitor brings two of their own items to sell and then the other two that they would sell in the preliminary round are donated by either businesses, or the Association would donate them. In the final round all are donated items.

“The Auctioneer’s Association for the last 10 to 15 years does a joint project with both the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton and the children’s hospital in Calgary, and it’s basically a framed art print that one of the kids that would have been in the hospital at one point in time drew, and then they make prints of that and we sell those prints as fundraisers throughout the year, so a few of those items were those prints.”

The money then gets donated to the hospitals, and this year around $1,200 was donated.

One of the competitors at this year’s event from Drayton Valley was Justin Meyers, who placed second.

“I was the Canadian Reserve Champion this year. The whole convention was a great success,” he said.

Meyers graduated at the Western College of Auctioneering in 2013 and his family is the Sekura’s, who own Team Auctions Sekura Auctions. Meyers is a third generation auctioneer.

Kyle Smigelski from Niton Junction, Alberta, came in ninth place and found the event great.

“Lots of similar faces and a couple of new faces came. It kind of feels like a family reunion to be honest,” he said of the event.

This was his fourth time going to the convention and his second time competing in the all-around competition.

“It could have been better,” he said of his placing. “You have to please all five judges and it was hard, especially when all of them are past auctioneers or own auction companies. It’s a little nerve wrecking standing up there too when you know you’re being judged by everyone in the room,” he said of his experience.

Smigelski went to school when he was 17 in 2017 and in 2019 started working at VJV Rimbey at the auction market and goes to Ponoka on Wednesdays to sell cows in the cow ring. He also takes part in a classic car sale in Red Deer twice a year called EG or Electric Garage Auctions.

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(Photos courtesy of Black Press)
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(Photos courtesy of Black Press)
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