The Early Show
August 26, 2005

"Everybody has been touched by this, so they all want to participate and help," says family friend Jodi Bearman. That includes Mountain Brook's most famous "Friend," Courtney Cox, who graduated from the same high school as Holloway. Cox and husband David Arquette wanted to help raise money to keep the search for Natalee alive. So, says Holloway's aunt, Marcia Twitty, "They came up with this idea, 'What about a celebrity auction?' And we were like, 'That sounds cool!' "

Twitty says she was amazed by what happened next: donations from celebrities, the sports world, and beyond. In the room where the auction was held Thursday night, one table had nothing but items contributed by the cast of the hit TV show "Friends," which Cox starred in. There was a whole row of celebrity guitars, from Sting, Alan Jackson, and Bobby Weir. The Grateful Dead sent an autographed drumhead along. "Ruben Studdard, remember Ruben?" asked Twitty. "Ruben sent things for us." The NFL donated a pair of tickets to the Super Bowl. A piece of NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson's race car was signed. Of course!

Twitty was hoping for two dozen items. Instead, she received 200. She says, when she looks around at all the goodies, "I just, wow! You just go, 'Wow, this many people actually care about what's going on.' And they really do."

You would think, at an auction, the more bidders, the better, Cobiella observes. But the event was by invitation only. About 1,000 people were invited. Otherwise, organizers feared, the entire town might show up. Says family friend Bearman, "This city has lots of roots, and everyone's connected." Bearman organized the senior class trip to Aruba, the one from which Holloway vanished, and Bearman was on that first flight back with Holloway's parents the day after she disappeared.