Camp Wildcat hopes to raise at least $4,000 tomorrow night to help underprivileged Tucson youths attain success in college and life.

The student club will hold its annual benefit auction in the North Ballroom of the Student Union Memorial Center from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The auction is Camp Wildcat’s biggest source of funding, and largely allows members to hold the camping trips that encourage low-income students to consider higher education, said Sadie Weiss, a pre-business freshman and the organizer for the auction.

“”When we take these kids camping, we really show them what it’s like to be in college, the independence that comes with it – even the fact that they can go to college,”” she said. “”Some of the kids, it hasn’t even crossed their minds that they can go to college, if they work hard and they get scholarships.””

Club volunteers have received more than $15,000 of merchandise from local businesses and UA alumni, which will be sold in both silent and live auctions.

Items include a pearl necklace donated from Silverberg Jewelers, signed basketballs donated from the UA men’s basketball team, trips to Mexico and Colorado worth more than $3,000 and gift certificates.

The event will include a dinner paid for by Camp Wildcat and performances by Vocal Ease, a women’s a cappella ensemble.

The organization also raised money for camps – which cost about $2,000 on average, Weiss said – by operating concession stands at university sporting events, as well as working at this year’s Super Bowl in Glendale.

Camp Wildcat takes students on trips all around Southern Arizona, and also holds events on campus.

The club averages three camps during the academic year and one during the summer.

“”Seeing us college kids out there and expressing to them what we do, we get that interest out of them,”” Weiss said.

The club has organized a camping trip for the weekend directly following the auction. The trip will take 60 students from Los Amigos Elementary School, on East Drexel Road, to Showers Point, a camping site on Mt. Lemmon.

This trip will be unique because its activities will be based on the board game Clue, said Christen Peterson, an anthropology senior and event organizer.