Benefit tickets selling quickly

Tickets are still available for the fourth-annual Mardi Gras Magic Dinner & Dance to benefit Austin's House on Feb. 17 at the Carson Valley Inn.

The fundraiser recreates the party atmosphere of Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday with food, music, dancing, raffle prizes and a grand prize drawing for a trip to "The Big Easy."

The evening starts at 6 p.m. with a cocktail hour. Then attendees will feast on a Cajun buffet dinner featuring peel and eat shrimp, chicken gumbo, blackened fish, sausage steamed in beer and smoked rib eye roast with all of the trimmings.

After dinner, dancing music is provided by Fabrizio. Raffle prizes will be drawn every 15 minutes. The silent auction features tickets to a Reno Aces game, a flight in a 1942 Navy Trainer Biplane, Lake Tahoe lodging packages and Genoa Lakes golf packages.

Tickets are $50. Tables of 10 are available for $500. Only 200 tickets will be sold. Call Austin's House at 267-6711 to order your tickets. Visa and MasterCard are accepted.

You need not be present to win the grand prize drawing for a three day, two night vacation at the 4-Star Harrah's New Orleans including dinner for two at Besh Steakhouse, tickets to the Audubon Zoo, Aquarium of the Americas and Entergy IMAX theater plus $500 towards airfare. Tickets can be purchased for $20 from Austin's House or any member of the board of directors.

Austin's House is the only emergency children's shelter in rural Northern Nevada.

For more information or to make a donation to Austin's House, call 267-6711 or visit www.austinshouse.org.