Ellen Brown holds the pottery she purchased at Brennen Elementary School's auction.

Brennen Elementary art students helped make the PTO's third annual auction a huge success by creating 49 unique pieces of pottery for bids raising close to $5,000 of the total proceeds of more than $30,000.

The idea of having each class, kindergarten through fifth grade, create a piece of pottery came from 20-year-art teacher Brian Knuuti. Knuuti led his classes in creating large, multicolored bowls and platters of top-quality craftsmanship featuring swirl designs, free-form shapes, or petal-like edges.

Eager bidders quickly ran up the bids on the 39 class pieces in the silent auction and the 10 additional ones for the live auction.

The auction was held March 4, 2006, at Rosewood's at the Fairgrounds , In addition to the pottery, the auction featured beachhouse weeks, sports memorabilia, toys, artwork, fashion items, gift certificates to local businesses and themed baskets created by each homeroom class. WIS-TV's anchor Craig Melvin served as live auction emcee for the third straight year.

Knuuti expressed much pride in his students' accomplishments. "It's amazing what you can do with more than 700 kids who want to learn," he said. Auction proceeds will go toward teacher training and technology needs.