ATLANTA, GA... An auction held in Crested Butte, Colo., on Feb. 9 raised $922,040 to support the Atlanta-based, nonprofit Carter Center.

The Center, which was founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, is celebrating in 2002 its 20th anniversary of advancing peace and health worldwide. Center programs have improved the lives of people in more than 65 countries.

"Rosalynn and I are grateful and pleased that so many people care about the work of The Carter Center. Their contributions give hope to suffering people worldwide," said President Carter.

The highest selling auction item, which brought $250,000, was a hard-maple, four-poster bed crafted by President Carter. Other high bids included: $87,500 for a photograph of five U.S. presidents and six first ladies autographed by each of them; $45,000 for a Saab automobile; $45,000 for an autographed photo of five presidents; and $45,000 for one week on a luxury yacht. President Carter also prepared two bottles of homemade wine that sold for $12,000 each and a yellow poplar stool crafted by him from wood on his farm, which brought $15,000. Other items of note included an ornately designed mother-of-pearl encrusted King James Bible, which sold for $21,500, and a photo of the Carters with Elvis Presley, President Carter's distant cousin, which sold for $10,000.

The auction highlighted the Carter Center's 10th annual Winter Weekend, Feb. 6-10, at Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado. Among 300 guests at the event were baseball legend Hank Aaron and members of the FutureForce, a leadership program for at-risk youth in the Atlanta area.

The Carter Center's 20-year record of achievement includes: observing multiparty elections in more than 20 countries; leading a worldwide campaign that has reduced cases of Guinea worm disease by 98 percent; helping to provide some 35 million drug treatments to sufferers of river blindness in Africa and Latin America; creating new avenues for peace in Sudan, Uganda, the Korean Peninsula, Haiti, the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Liberia, and Ethiopia; working to erase the stigma against mental illness in the United States and abroad; strengthening human rights institutions, civil society, and economic development in emerging democracies; and enabling 4,000,000 farmers in Africa to double, triple, or quadruple their multiply grain yields.