The numbers are in from the auction of the first batch of City Hall Roof Top Honey and the results mark sweet success for Gallery 37, a City of Chicago job training program that promotes art with Chicago's youth ages 14-21. 

As the auction drew to a close on Monday evening, eager patrons swarmed around the baskets of honey at the Gallery 37 store to put in their final bids. Overall, the auction raised $4,560, which is more than double what the honey would have reaped if sold directly off the shelf. 

"It's great when you can do something that benefits our city's environment while also helping the future of our children. Everything works together to improve the quality of life in Chicago," said Mayor Richard M. Daley. "We are grateful for the generosity of all the sponsor companies involved, as well as the people who put bids in on the baskets." 

The City decided to make the honey available through a gift basket silent auction to raise money for Gallery 37. Thirty-two holiday gift baskets containing five jars of honey each were sponsored by local hotels, retailers, sports teams and cultural attractions offering fantastic packages of tickets, hotel stays, upscale foods and gift items that were available for holiday shoppers to bid on at the Gallery 37 Store. The silent auction started Friday, December 19, and ended on Monday, December 22, at 6 p.m.

Sponsors included Dominick's Finer Foods, Eli's Cheesecake, Marshall Fields, Broadway in Chicago, the Palmer House Hilton and Ritz Carlton Hotels, Sam's Discount Wine and Liquor, Border's Books, Nuts on Clark, Stewart's Coffee, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Park District, Gallery 37 and the Chicago Cultural Center.

The baskets that claimed the highest bids included one sponsored by Ritz-Carlton Hotels and one sponsored by Broadway in Chicago. Each sold for $300. Appropriately, the colorful labels on the jars of Roof Top Honey were created by Gallery 37 guild artist Fernando Ramirez.

Not only did the honey auction bring in funding for Gallery 37, it also helped drive traffic into the store during the height of holiday shopping downtown. The Gallery 37 store sells works of art designed by young artists, and proceeds benefit the program.

"The auction was a great way for people to support the mission of Gallery 37 and a sweet way for us to end the year," said Michelle Boone, Director of Gallery 37.

Last April, two hives of Italian honeybees were installed in the rooftop garden atop City Hall by Chicago beekeepers Michael Thompson and Stephanie Averill. Thompson and Averill take care of the hives on a volunteer basis and oversaw the complex honey harvesting process this fall.   

The honeybees worked diligently all summer pollinating flowers up and down Michigan Avenue, in Grant Park and all over the downtown area. Honeybees are good for the environment because they pollinate flowers and plants and help them reproduce and flourish. The honeybees' tireless efforts resulted in a bountiful harvest of more than 150 jars of honey.

Initiated in the summer of 2000, Chicago's City Hall rooftop was transformed, at the suggestion of Mayor Daley, into a green oasis. Not only does the green roof absorb rainwater, it cools and filters the air around it and provides all kinds of great habitat for migratory birds and butterflies.

All proceeds from the Roof Top honey auction will support the programs of

Gallery 37, Chicago's jobs-training program in the arts.

In 2004, Gallery 37 celebrates its fourteenth year of operation, during which time it has trained more than 40,000 youth, ages 10-21, in meaningful apprenticeships with professional artists. In Gallery 37's job training programs, youth earn a stipend to create literary, visual, digital, culinary or performance art, while learning vital job skills such as time management, creative reasoning and teamwork. Gallery 37 programs take place on Block 37 on State Street in the Loop; in Chicago Public Schools, Park District sites and community centers; and at the Gallery 37 Center for the Arts, 66 E. Randolph Street. Recognized as a model of Government Innovation, Gallery 37 was awarded the 1999 "Coming Up Taller Award" from the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been replicated in two dozen cities in the United States and abroad.