Attendance was down for the 30th annual Skidmore College polo fundraising dinner this week, but the college still raised $150,000 for scholarships.

A total of 420 guests attended this year's Polo by Twilight event Aug. 4 at the Saratoga Polo Association field at Denton and Bloomfield roads in Greenfield. About 500 attended the 2008 dinner, according to college officials.

All the money raised by the sale of tickets to the gourmet dinner, polo match, and silent and live auctions goes to the Joseph C. and Anne T. Palamountain Scholarship Fund. The scholarship fund, which is used to help students who could not otherwise attend Skidmore, was created to honor
Skidmore's fourth president and his wife for their 22 years (1965 to 1987) of leadership.

The high bidders in the auction were husband and wife Marianne Mustafa, Skidmore Class of 1994, and Kyle Kordish of Ballston Spa, with a bid of $8,750 for a share of a thoroughbred race horse from West Point Thoroughbreds.

Other top bidders included Lew Titterton of Saratoga Springs, who bid $2,400 for an original painting by abstract painter and Skidmore professor emeritus David Miller.

Socialite Marylou Whitney and her husband, John Hendrickson, were high bidders on a pair of custom garden urns from Hidden Gardens with a bid of $1,200. The couple also contributed $10,000 to the dinner's Fund-a-Future auction.

Susan Dake, Skidmore Class of 1971, won the "heads and tales" auction for two round-trip tickets on Jet Blue to any destination the airline services.