It took quite a bit of doing to get one of this year’s most unusual auction items to Sweet Home Alabama for the Andalusia Ballet’s 28th anniversary season “Opening Night” auction and dinner.

The item, a cymbal used and autographed by members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, had to be shipped overnight from Canada, where the band is on tour, to Columbus, Miss., where a friend of the band had put the plan in motion.

Jill Bryant, who is chairing this year’s auction, explained that her sister, Julie Moore, just moved to Columbus, Miss.

“Her real estate agent, Robert Rhett, is a good friend and actually traveled with the Lynyrd Skynyrd band many years ago,” Bryant explained.

“So this idea popped in her head,” Bryant said. “She asked Robert if maybe they might sign something to auction.

“He said ‘sure.’ So Tripp and Regina Bass donated a cymbal. We shipped it to Julie, and Robert shipped it to them.”

The story goes a bit off track here, because the band was in Canada and didn’t get the cymbal. So they pulled one of theirs, signed it and shipped it to Columbus, Miss.

The cymbal will be among the items in the live auction at Saturday night’s event at the Andalusia Country Club.

Tickets to the dinner buffet and silent auction are $75 per couple and are available at the Andalusia Ballet studio and from ABA board members.