Pearl Jam, Heart, mementos featured at auction

Port Orchard real estate agent Kim Stewart has proof that sometimes all those wanna-be rock stars you hung out with years ago weren’t just losers like your parents said.

Sometimes, they make it big — and you get to call in some big favors.

Favors like a guitar and CDs signed by all the members of Pearl Jam. More CDs signed by Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart. And, finally, autographed baseball bats donated by Seattle Mariners Dan Wilson, Richie Sexson and South Kitsap native Willie Bloomquist.

Thanks to Stewart’s connections, all these items and more will be auctioned off on Saturday at the Coldwell Banker Park Shore Real Estate office on Mile Hill Drive in a benefit for the American Cancer Society.

“I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to help,” said Stewart, explaining that she was not able to participate in her office’s auction last year due to her own battle with cancer. But after receiving a “clean bill of health” recently, she said she decided to go all out for this year’s event.

First, she asked musicians Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, who she and her husband met “way before they were in Pearl Jam” if they would be willing to help out.

Hoping for perhaps an autographed CD, Stewart said she was amazed when they ended up donating two — “Live at Benaroya Hall, Oct. 22, 2003” and “Lost Dogs” — plus a Gibson electric guitar signed by all the members of the band.

“They are so good-hearted, and have donated to various causes,” Stewart said. “It just made my heart swell, and I hope it draws a lot of people out.”

But Stewart wasn’t done yet. She then tapped into the client list at her husband’s Seattle hair salon — a list that just happens to include Heart founders Ann and Nancy Wilson, and Mariners catcher Dan Wilson.

From the Wilson sisters, Stewart collected two more CDS — autographed copies of “Dream Boat Annie” and “bebe le strange” — while the baseball players donated several bats they had signed at spring training.

Stewart said the guitar, CD and bats will be sold via silent auction during the event in the office’s parking lot, which will also include a car wash, bake sale, and a raffle for a radio-controlled Harley Davidson motorcycle, along with various other items for sale.

“Hopefully we will have good weather,” Stewart said. “And hopefully, we can find a cure soon, too.”

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