DESERT HAVEN AUCTION; MONEY RAISED WILL HIRE MORE HANDICAPPED.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

With items on the auction block ranging from exotic trips to vasectomies, Desert Haven's 1999 benefit auction proved a cut above the rest - bringing in $235,000, the most since 1991.

Saturday's auction at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds drew nearly 900 people from all over Southern California, and they spent $57,000 more than last year - $35,000 above this year's goal, according to auction chairman Ken Mann.

``We had what I would consider an outstanding auction,'' Mann said. ``It was a combination of things that made it such a huge success and everything just seemed to work together.''

Eighty-eight items were put up for bid in the grand auction and more than 300 items were bid on in the mini-auction, which featured items expected to go for less than $1,000.

``The grand auction brought in more money this year than the entire auction last year,'' Mann said. The record take for a Desert Haven auction was $306,000 in 1990. In second place was the 1991 auction, at $246,000.

The highest bidders for 1999 were Doug and Lena Weber of Lancaster, who paid $19,420 for auction items that included a trip to Maui, an in-ground pool by Wagner Pools & Spas and carpeting by Metro Floors.

Littlerock residents Mike and Gloria Noble - Desert Haven auction veterans - paid $15,605 for a London/Paris trip, a Kawasaki Wave Runner and other items.

Vernon and Christine Hitchcock of Lancaster paid $9,350 for a New England vacation, a week at a cabin at Shaver Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and the right to sit at the head table at the 2000 auction.

Desert Haven is a nonprofit job training organization that serves about 300 mentally handicapped adults.

The auction is Desert Haven's biggest fund-raiser of the year. Officials say it will enable the center to employ and train even more handicapped residents by helping finance an addition to its Lancaster workshop.

Besides working on contracts for private industry in the center, Desert Haven clients also go out to work on jobs that including caring for landscaping at Edwards Air Force Base, High Desert Hospital and Lancaster Community Hospital.

``We're growing and we're trying to keep up with that growth,'' Executive Director Jenni Moran said. ``We have had a steady increase each year, and I think this is our best year yet.''

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Photo: (1--2--Color) Above, Van Oveal from Palmdale works on packaging an order at the Desert Haven Enterprises in Lancaster. At left, Production Coordinator Ron Thompson talks with worker Melanie Poirier. Desert Haven is a non-profit job training organization that serves about 300 mentally handicapped adults.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News