Alverno Heights Academy will be hosting a holiday online auction and boutique gift shoppe Monday, November 29 through Thursday, December 2, to kick off the holiday season.
On December 5, the traditional Christmas Boutique unfolds in person in the Villa del Sol d’Oro on the Academy’s campus, featuring handcrafted ornaments, holiday gifts and decor, stocking stuffers, and also a “Sweet Shoppe,” Wendy Finch, Director of Development at Alverno Heights Academy, said.
Online bidding opens on Monday, November 29, up to Thursday. This year’s online auction will include hard-to-find electronics, Jingle Ball concert tickets, Lego sets, new and traditional board games for the entire family, LA Lakers tickets, and many more.
Items bought in the online auction, which is called “Take a Ride on Alverno’s Cyber Express,” can be picked up during the in-person Holiday Boutique on Sunday, December 5, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Villa Del Sol d’Oro.
“We will be featuring traditional Christmas ornaments, handcrafted ornaments, decor stocking stuffers, that type of thing, as well as all kinds of different gifts for people on your shopping list. So it’s going to be gifts and holiday décor,” Finch-Burk said. “And then there will also be a little sweet section where we will be selling candies and breads and cookies. And then we will also have cookie decorating for the kids outside on the Villa terrace. So the kids will be occupied while parents are shopping.”
Staff will also offer onsite gift wrapping services so people can get their gifts wrapped after purchase.
Villa Del Sol d’Oro was built from 1924 to 1928 for prominent Los Angeles physician Dr. Walter Jarvis Barlow and his wife, Marion Brooks Barlow. They chose the site of their dream house in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Finch-Burk said the Villa, designed by notable Pasadena architect Wallace Neff, is a two-thirds scale replica of the Villa Collazi in Florence, Italy, rumored to have been built by Michelangelo.
Five years after Dr. Walter Barlow died, Marion Brooks Barlow made the difficult decision to sell the Villa del Sol d’Oro to the Sisters of St. Francis who planned to use the property as a convent and novitiate for their growing order.
Recognizing the need for more opportunities for young women, the Sisters of St. Francis began constructing an all-girls high school on the Provincial Center property just north of the convent house. The school, originally named Alverno Heights Academy, welcomed its first students in 1960 and the first class graduated from the Alverno terrace in 1964.
To learn more about Alverno Heights Academy, visit www.alvernoheightsacademy.org.
For more information about the Online Holiday Auction and the actual Christmas Boutique, visit www.smore.com/8gkhw.
