The Ninth Annual ProCigar Festival concluded its week-long celebration with a gala in Santiago’s Centro Español on Friday, February 26, 2016, that raised a record breaking $201,000 in a live auction, more than doubling the amount raised the prior year. All of the proceeds from the auction benefit The Voluntariado de Jesús con los Niños (a non-profit organization for ill children), The Sociedad San Vicente de Paul (a retirement home for low income elderly) and The Monumento a los Heroes de la Restauración.
The live auction, co-hosted by Quesada Cigar’s President and Vice President of ProCigar Manuel Quesada, and Michael Herklots, Vice President of Retail and Brand Development of Nat Sherman, featured 14 official lots, as well as several unannounced lots. Nearly all of the lots featured one-of-a-kind humidors or limited edition cigars. The auction opened with a warm up lot, a bow-tie and handkerchief stolen off Mr. Alberto Montserrat, President of Cigar Rings which despite a bidding war to win it back was sold to tablemate Litto Gomez, President of La Flor Dominican Cigars, for $1,000.
A custom Trunk Humidor filled with long sold out limited edition Davidoff Cigars offered by Oettinger Davidoff AG’s Tabadom Holding, Inc fetched $58,000, the highest amount paid for a lot during the evening. A stunning humidor sculpted in replica scale of a typical Santiago Coche and filled with cigars from De Los Reyes Cigars, brought in the second highest closing bid of $50,000. The Auction concluded with Manuel Quesada being challenged by Mr. Gomez to shave his moustache. The bidding began at $4,700 (one hundred dollars per year that the moustache had been on Mr. Quesada), and through a group effort of contributions brought in a total of $15,000 to evening’s total to remove Quesada’s moustache.
“Enjoying some of the world’s greatest cigars, food, music, rum and beer, together with some of the world’s greatest people, in the middle of the Dominican Republic… it is really tough to beat.”, said Herklots. “But, when you can do all of those things and raise money to help those less fortunate at the same time, it becomes a magical experience that is frankly, impossible to beat.”
The Tenth Annual Procigar Festival will be held in 19-24 February, 2017. ProCigar was founded in 1992 in the Dominican Republic as an association of Dominican Cigar Manufacturers. The mission of the association is to defend, protect and divulge the good name of the land of Cigar Country, the Dominican Republic, the number one exporter of Premium Cigars in the World.
