OCEAN CITY, Md. - A local pediatric cancer respite house will be receiving $66,951 after an Ocean City business auctioned off old town signs online.
Plak That founder and owner, Wyatt Harrison, says it all started when his business bid to be the vendor to remove and replace all the signs on the Ocean City boardwalk.
He says as they were taking down the signs, they were thinking they could either throw them out or recycle them.
"Then we had the idea... because so many people were reaching out to us asking, What are you doing with the old ones? Are they still available?," he says.
That's when he decided to hold an auction and have the proceeds go to the Believe in Tomorrow Children's Foundation House by the Sea in Ocean City.
The Ocean City house is part of a nationwide, free respite program, where families with critically-ill children can go and escape the routine of medical treatments. It is located on 65th Street, and it was the first of its kind to focus on pediatric cancer families.
Harrison says he grew up in Ocean City and spent 12 years working at Malibu Surf Shop, where they would give surf lessons to the families.
"We started doing all these surf lessons and that organization has just always meant a lot to me," Harrison says. "I felt like [choosing Believe in Tomorrow] was a pretty easy pick for me."
He tells WBOC the money he and his team were able to raise blew him away.
"At first, my team and I, we were like, this is a cool idea," he says. "I did not think it was going to do what it did."
Harrison says halfway through the auction, he has committed to donating at least $10,000. The auction allowed him to donate six times that.
He says when people come to pick up their signs, they tell him about what the sign meant to them, from engagements, to weddings, and kids growing up on the Ocean City beach.
The auction winners can go to pick up their sign at Plak That, or they can get it shipped to them.
"We've been shipping some of these vintage sings all over the country, Oregon, D.C.," Harrison says. "I think there were 28 different states that we have shipped to as part of this auction."
Harrison says he spoke with Believe in Tomorrow, who told him the money will go towards house upgrades they haven't been able to get to over the years.
