THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994 TAG: 9406080219
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940610 LENGTH: ZUNI
Already, he's been to Chuckatuck to pick up split-rail fencing and hanging baskets, fertilizer and mulch.
{REST} And he filled his pickup truck with gas for an 84-mile trip later in the day to pick up an organ which later turned into two organs, then three.
On Saturday, Bishop will be wearing his auctioneer's hat, when he sells all the items he's collected to benefit his favorite charity, Zuni Presbyterian Center, a residential school that prepares mentally handicapped adults for life on their own.
The intensive, four-year program in life skills is one of only a handful nationwide, center officials said. The 300-acre campus of rolling green fields opened in March 1967 as an outreach ministry of Presbyterian Home and Family Services.
Most days Bishop wears the hat of director of the school, which he joined as a teacher 22 years ago. He was hired to help train the students for agricultural jobs.
As the landscape changed in southern Isle of Wight County, where the school is located, however, the design of the center changed with it, mostly due to Bishop's innovative thinking.
The students stopped farming, and Bishop started a greenhouse operation to be run by the students.
There's also a peanut business, and a custodial service provides additional job opportunities for the students.
When the school first opened, only three young men lived upstairs in an old farmhouse. Today, there are about 55 students, ages 18 to 30, from all over the East Coast.
Most of them have IQs in the range of 45 to 75, but they are otherwise healthy and able to work. Eleven currently work off campus in nearby communities.
In addition to job training, they learn the skills they need to take care of themselves, from how to handle money to shopping and keeping house.
Five years ago, Bishop, 50, thought an auction might be a good way to raise money for the school. Everybody has things they'd like to get rid of, he said. What better cause than the Zuni Presbyterian Center?
So Bishop went to auctioneer's school to learn how to do it himself. Today, he's in charge of the annual auction. This is the fifth.
Everybody knows Bishop is devoted to his job. His license plate reads ``Zuni Tech.''
``Nothing makes me happier than to get somebody to give something to Zuni Presbyterian Center,'' Bishop said. ``Of course, I love to get an auction item.''
The auction, he admits, is his ``fun.''
``Got 10 bags of fertilizer to sell,'' Bishop says, breaking into his chanting auctioneer's voice and slapping a 50-pound bag with the palm of his hand.
``Who'll give me five dol-lahs?,'' he intoned. ``Got five, now five and a-half. Five and a half . . . Anybody else? Sold. Nummmm-ber 25. Sold at six and a-half.''
Bishop turns nothing down. This year, he'll auction new and used furniture, new and used appliances, a canoe, antiques, carpeting, nine yards of concrete, ``nice'' picture frames and two custom-made fishing rods by Ronnie Hogwood.
Bishop hopes to make at least $25,000 on the auction. Proceeds will go toward expanding the off-campus work program and perhaps to hire another job ``coach,'' a staff member who works closely with the students until they learn a particular skill.
``We know the working world is out in the community,'' Bishop said. ``The greenhouse and the peanut business is our controlled environment. But the future for these people is in the real world.''
Four trailers filled with auction items stand on a back lot of the campus.
``I call friends,'' he said. ``I write friends. Friends from Buckingham County gave me a set of tires. Brand new tires.''
He also has a hot tub, plane tickets out of the Wakefield airport, a strawberry planter, free fishing trips and passes for overnight stays in local hotels and motels.
Bishop will even sell himself for his students. One of the final items listed on the flier he's been distributing all over Hampton Roads reads: ``Two days deer hunting with Robert Bishop.''
And Bishop guarantees that on the day of the auction, from 10 a.m. until every item is sold, there will be good food, good fellowship, fun and lots of bargains.
``If you believe in Jesus Christ and have self-confidence, you can accomplish miracles,'' he said, smiling. ``That's what Zuni's all about.''
And if you have something you want to donate to the auction, bring it along.
``We always have a few surprises,'' Bishop said.
by CNB