Prince George, B.C. – Area residents have an opportunity this weekend to dust off their antiques and heirlooms and check, perhaps just out of curiosity, to see what monetary value they might have.

The folks at the Huble Homestead Historic Site have invited Ted Pappas to town to conduct his Antique Appraisals today and tomorrow in the atrium at The Exploration Place.  He’ll be there from 10 am to 4 pm each day and for $10 per item you can learn about your object, its value and also get some tips on the cleaning and care of your valuables.

The Operations Manager at the Huble Homestead, Krystal Leason, says “we love to bring Ted Pappas (right) here.  People in Prince George don’t often get an opportunity to have items appraised, and they certainly don’t get a chance to have them appraised at this price.  So it’s really an excellent deal.  Ted is very knowledgeable and so, if you have anything that you have questions about we encourage you to bring them.  He’s also available for home visits, so people can have him come to their house.”

She says Pappas “is currently retired.  His family owned West Coast Estate Auctions for over 40 years in North Vancouver.  He retire as number of years ago and he’s been coming up to Prince George doing these things for us since, I think, 2008.  And Ted actually has a personal connection to Huble Homestead.  His father was from Prince George and was friends with Al Huble, Jr. and spent some time at the homestead when they were young.  Ted, she says, “is very good to us he gives us a very reasonable cost to bring him here and really we should be paying  him much more.  He doesn’t even take breaks, he just wants to appraise everything that people bring, so he’s really invested in it for us and we just can’t thank him enough.”

Leason notes “it’s partly public service and partly fundraising at this point, and we just really enjoy having it.”  She says the event raises funds for restoration and public programming at the Huble Homestead and this year they are directing the money from the appraisal toward some bridge work.  “We have a number of structures on our historic site and occasionally they require replacement or updating.  We have a bridge that crosses between the First Nations fish camp and the rest of the river trail and it’s in need of some “uplifting”.  We also want to make it wider so our new lawnmower can cross it.”

“We knew we had to do this and we didn’t get to it last year because we were so busy with some of our other projects but this year we are definitely prioritizing it.  Things are all wooden and they wear out so it’s time.”

She says the fundraiser “doesn’t make too much money, usually maybe a couple thousand dollars”, but she adds that even if they are not interested in the antique appraisal, anyone wanting to make a donation to the bridge projects can do so.  “We accept donations at any time.  If you would like to make a donation we can write a taxable donation receipt.  We are a registered charity so for donations you can always get a receipt for that.  You don’t get a tax receipt for your appraisal cost because it’s a service technically.  But it is going to the same project.”