BLUEFIELD — An upcoming fundraiser will give people in both Virginias the opportunity to buy celebrity memorabilia and actually meet one of the world’s most famous castaways and baker of banana cream pies.

Dawn Wells, known to generations of fans as Mary Ann of the classic television show “Gilligan’s Island,” is heading for Bluefield so she can help Friday, Nov. 20 with the Denver Foundation’s Christmas Celebrity Auction at Gary Bowling’s House of Art.

Wells told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that she was speaking on the telephone with her longtime friend Dreama Denver, wife of the late Bob Denver — Gilligan of the television show — when the upcoming fundraiser was mentioned. Wells has never visited southern West Virginia, the new home of her co-star.

“I’m delighted to do this. He (Denver) was just a remarkable man and a genius at his craft. I really do think he was an extraordinary talent...and I was very, very honored to be included in his circle of friends.”

Wells still acts in movies and plays — recently in the play “Across the River And Through The Woods” in Toronto, Canada–and uses her talents as a motivational speaker. She also works for the Terry Lee Wells Foundation in Nevada — named after her cousin Terry Lee — which helps private, non-profit organizations aid underprivileged people.

Besides the chance to meet Wells, visitors will be able to bid on autographed items from celebrities such as Jerry West, Chad Pennington, Homer Hickam, Tony Romo, Brad Paisely, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Cal Ripkin, The Jonas Brother, Miley Cyrus, “American Idol’s” Taylor Hicks and others, said Dreama Denver.

A movie poster autographed by the cast of the vampire tale “Twilight,” a signed harmonica from Taylor Hicks of “American Idol,” an album signed by all four members of the Oak Ridge Boys, signed items by Angela Cartwright of the show “Lost in Space,” and a guitar signed by 18 major country western artists like Garth Brooks and Keith Urban are among the items up for bid, she said.

“It is really the Denver Foundation’s big fundraiser,” she said. “When my husband passed away, we had just started Little Buddy Radio, a nonprofit station, and what it makes goes into the foundation.”

The Denver Foundation has joined forces with ResCare to help families with children who have special needs, Denver said.

“We’ve hooked up with really great and wonderful people there. They know where the needs lay in this community,” she added.

Both Bob and Dreama Denver learned what families with special needs children go through to provide for their needs every day. To help other families facing the same struggles, they created the foundation and Little Buddy Radio.

“Bob and I have a severely autistic son, so we really understood in an up close and personal way what it is like to provide care,” she said. “It’s hugely, emotionally draining. It’s exhausting, physically. It’s a huge commitment, and it’s not easy. There’s nothing easy about it.”

Caring for special needs people is also financially challenging. Stars of shows like “Gilligan’s Island” achieved fame, but the experience did not make them wealthy. Unlike actors in today’s television series, the actors of 1960’s shows do not receive royalties. Except for his pay while doing the show, Bob Denver “never made a penny on it,” she said.

When “Gilligan’s Island” premiered in the 1960s, the television industry had nothing even remotely like the DVD box sets, mass syndication and merchandising that are so common today, Dreama Denver explained. Actors were paid for an episode’s initial run and the first rerun. The family did not have a huge fund generated by “Gilligan’s Island” to help them pay for their son’s care, so they faced the same challenges endured by other families with special needs children.

Bob and Dreama worked together to meet their son’s daily needs; they could not hire professionals to do it.

“We didn’t have the funds to be able to do that — even if we had, we would have still done it ourselves because that’s the kind of people we are,” she said. “We struggled just like everybody else to make ends meet and make sure his needs were met.”

The Denver Foundation will use the auction’s proceeds to aid local families with grants to help them afford the services and items they need for their loved ones, Denver said. Even doing something like helping a family get a washing machine can go a long way toward improving their quality of life, she added.

Tickets for the Denver Foundation’s Christmas Wish Celebrity Auction are $20 and now available at all First Community Bank locations. Doors open 6 p.m. Friday at Gary Bowling’s House of Art at 701 Bland Street in downtown Bluefield.