Owner of Minden storage facility creates auction-style fundraiser

Debbie Pinjuv wasn’t about to organize yet another fundraising golf tournament or 10K run as she tried to figure ways to develop financial support for Healing Moves Foundation.

But the charity event that Pinjuv developed — a storage auction showdown — shows the challenges facing folks who want to create a new fundraising concept from scratch.

The event, scheduled for Sept. 14 at Airport Road Self Storage near Minden, benefits Healing Moves Foundation and its programs to provide specialized exercise programs for people facing health challenges.

Pinjuv, whose imagination generates fundraising ideas at about the same pace that bottling plants generate six packs of soda pop, watched cable television’s “Storage Wars” one recent day.

She watches the show with more than idle interest, because she owns Airport Road Self Storage with her husband, John, a commercial real estate broker who oversees the Reno office of Avison Young.

An idea: What if Airport Road Self Storage were to host a fundraiser produced by the executives of “Storage Wars,” with proceeds to benefit Reno-based Healing Moves Foundation?

After a couple of calls to producers of the show, Pinjuv scratched that idea. The costs and hassles of bringing “Storage Wars” to Minden would sink the nonprofit.

Ah, but what if Healing Moves Foundation were to undertake its own auction of the contents of storage units whose owners no longer are paying the rent?

A couple more phone calls.

Nevada law allows the owners of self-storage units to auction contents after renters are delinquent — but they get to keep only the amount that they’re owed for past rent. The rest of the sale proceeds go to the renters.

Ah, but what if business partners could be enlisted, each of them filling a storage unit with donated items — perhaps with a theme — and what if the businesses compete against one another to see which can attract the highest bid?

That one worked, especially after Pinjuv convinced her husband to sign on his firm as title sponsor. And in her first call to enlist business support, First Independent Bank not only signed on to develop a storage unit whose contents will be auctioned, but also became the event’s Platinum sponsor.

Other businesses that were among the first to sign on were South Reno Athletic Club, Pyramid CrossFit, Ticor Title, L.P. Insurance, The Abbi Agency and Pinecrest Construction.

Pinjuv expects about a dozen businesses will sponsor storage units with contents to be auctioned.

Airport Road Self Storage will auction the contents of about 10 more units whose owners have fallen behind on their rent. Healthy Moves won’t benefit directly from the auction of those units, but Pinjuv figures the additional units will add to the buzz.

As she told producers from Reno ‘s K-BULL 98.1 Radio as they planned live broadcasts from the event, “We want high energy. Non-stop high energy.”

(The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 14 at Airport Road Self Storage, which is at Highway 395 and Airport Road, north of Minden.)