WMR parking auction benefits food bank

A parking space auction by Whitefish Mountain Resort has raised $8,619 in donations for the North Valley Food Bank.

The resort recently auctioned off 16 spaces in its Alder Lot, located in the village closest to the slopes.

The resort added 16 new spaces in 2017 with the remodel of the Ed & Mully’s building and decided to offer parking passes for each of the spaces, according to a press release from the resort. The passes are good for every day of the ski season.

All but one parking passes sold out in three hours and the final one was sold the next day. Due to the demand, resort officials thought the passes could help in raising funds for the community.

“Even with this limited product, we had a unique opportunity to help our community benefit by raising funds for the North Valley Food Bank with this auction,” said Whitefish Mountain Resort CEO Dan Graves. “We are quite pleased at the response and look forward to making this an annual tradition.”

Each Alder Lot passholder is guaranteed one of the spaces from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day of the 2018/19 winter season. The starting bid for the passes was $650.

The two highest bids were $1,310 and the lowest bid was $1,050.

Whitefish Mountain Resort also sells season passes for its two pay lots.