St John’s College have announced that they will be holding a global auction of tickets for their May Ball, with all proceeds going to charity.

Each century of the College’s history will be marked by the sale of a pair of tickets. Four pairs, with the total market price exceeding £1200, will be auctioned on Ebay at the end of April, and the bidding is set to last for ten days. The fifth pair will be auctioned at the Ball’s launch party at some point in March.

The May Ball Committee felt that, since this year marks St John’s College’s Quincentenary, an appropriate way to celebrate it would be to hold an auction of this scale.

They also hoped that this initiative would help to maximize the potential such a popular May Ball has for donating money to charity.

May Ball President Dominic Collingwood said: “As a Committee we felt that the total amount that our Ball gives to charity each year was not great enough.”

He added: “It is our hope that this initiative will inspire future May Ball Committees to develop new and exciting ways of increasing their contribution to charity.”

With the proceeds from the Ebay auction, in addition to the general ticket sales and the income from their launch party in March, the May Ball Committee hopes to raise more than £5000.

St John’s May Ball has had an optional £5 charitable addition to standard ticket prices for several years, and has donated thousands of pounds to national and global charities.

For the past four years St John’s May Ball has primarily supported SOS Children’s Villages, the largest orphan and abandoned children’s charity in the world.

In addition to SOS Children’s Villages, St John’s will be supporting The Chernobyl Children’s Trust, the Kerio River Primary School, and East Anglia's Children's Hospices, a RAG charity being supported by multiple May Balls this year.

Through this auction the Committee hopes that they will be able to donate generously to all these causes. There are no eligibility rules on potential bidders, and all that is asked of them is that they bid generously towards these four charities.