Tickets are available to the SPCA's dinner and silent auction.
The SPCA of Connecticut has planned a dinner and silent auction to benefit a new
no-kill animal shelter currently under construction in Litchfield County. All proceeds will go toward funding the much-needed new facility. A March 2009 opening is planned.
The benefit event – titled Much Love 2008 – will be held
Friday, October 17, from 6-10 p.m., at the Norwalk Inn in Norwalk. The $125 per-person ticket price ($800 for a table of 8) will include dinner, hors d'oeurves and an open bar. The silent auction will feature high-end items with a total value of more than $100,000.
“The money we realize will go directly towards opening the doors of the new shelter,” said Frederick Acker, director of the SPCA of Connecticut. “Our target is to raise $150,000. That will help us open the doors next spring.”
Since 1999, the SPCA of Connecticut has been housed in a rambling old Victorian home in a residential neighborhood of Monroe. “It's not in the greatest of shape, and it was never originally meant to be used as an animal shelter,” Mr. Acker said. “The new building is a build-to-suit, specifically for our purposes, on property that's zoned for use as a kennel facility.”
When completed, the new shelter will comprise an 18,000-square-foot building situated on 15 acres. It will have a minimum 120 indoor animal runs, able to comfortably accommodate 120 dogs and 120 cats. Each run will have its own drainage. “We'd also like to hire an on-site veterinarian,” Mr. Acker added. “That would be a first for an animal shelter in Connecticut.”
Critical to its success is the new shelter's location – on a busy highway where, on average, 40,000 cars pass by each day. Mr. Acker said that should boost his current adoption rate of 500-600 animals per year to about 1,500-2,000 per year. “Having that kind of visibility is hugely important,” he said. “You don't get that in a residential neighborhood. We'll be in a high-traffic area that's zoned commercial. It's ideal.”
The new shelter will employ about 20 full-time and part-time staff, plus 100-200 volunteer staff. It will be open six days a week, another first for a Connecticut animal shelter. “The goal is to be a one-stop pet adoption destination,” Mr. Acker pointed out, “one that is convenient, easy to find and open during hours that fit people's schedules. We'd never had all that before. It will be exciting when it happens.”
Realizing funds from the benefit event is key to seeing the project along. Items in the silent auction promise to be enticing enough to help the organization realize its goal. They include:
• Lasik eye surgery, for both eyes.
• Framed Antique Animal Prints
• Gift Certificates to Restauants & Retail Shops
• Several high-end vacations
• $5,000 in diamond jewelry – courtesy Midas Touch
• Picasso and Peter Max signed lithographs.
• Original works of art.
• Fitness Edge Gym memberships
• Door prizes, including spay-neuter certificates and other items.
“Staging a benefit event with lots of high-end items in a silent auction is a wonderful thing,” Mr. Acker said, “but we should not lose sight of the fact that because of this, we will be able to help a lot of animals. We'll be handling more adoptions, for more people, in a state-of-the-art no-kill shelter with higher visibility than ever before. For someone in the animal welfare world, it doesn't get any better than that.”
For more information about the October 17 benefit event, call (203) 445-9978. To learn more about the SPCA of Connecticut or the event, please visit their
website.
Posted by Tammy Heeber, Best Friends Team Leader
Press release used by permission