Fundraising for our four-legged friends

We hope that by now the word has spread about our upcoming fundraiser, a Murder Mystery Dinner, for our shelter’s four-legged furry friends, to be held at the Convention Center on Oct. 19 (not Oct. 12 as noted on the 2013 CAPS calendar). We promise you a night filled with laughter and fun! On top of that, you will have a most delectable dinner catered by Maine Street Café.

When you buy your tickets (more on that below), you will choose one of two entrées: tri-tip steak or chicken piccata. Side dishes will be oven-roasted potatoes, mixed oven-roasted fresh vegetables, a tossed green salad, dinner rolls and butter, along with water, iced tea and coffee. Dessert will be luscious cupcakes much like the ones served last year. (Sandy Fisk has again donated her time and talent to us.) A cash bar serving wine and beer will also be available.

This year, instead of a served meal, we will again use buffet lines. Yes, that’s right, the plural “lines.” Because we won’t be holding a silent auction, there will be room enough for two buffet lines, which will surely reduce the waiting-in-line time. (And, as in years past, the wonderful, highly efficient Junior ROTC will be helping us out.) “If no silent auction, which brought in the bulk of the event’s revenue,” you may ask, “then how will CAPS raise funds?”

We will have a few very lovely items (two quilts that I know of) for the live auction following the end of play. We hope that everyone will stay for that, but mostly we will be relying on the generosity of you, our audience. CAPS’ annual October fundraiser is our biggest one each year, and the shelter couldn’t operate as well as it does without it. So please consider placing into donation jars, which will be on dining tables, what you might have spent on auction items, silent and/or live.

This will be an interactive evening with the cast mingling and chatting with you. This, of course, entails, on your part, to interact with us. We will be really disappointed if our audience doesn’t interact with us and only listens, so please join in the fun. Each guest will receive a booklet to track clues and write notes to solve this who-done-it play. If you have ever wanted to be a detective, Oct. 19 will be the night to become one!

The ticket price is $30 per person (12 years and older) and allows one trip through the buffet. Doors will open at 5 p.m., and the play starts at 5:30 (please don’t be late). Somewhere between 6 and 6:30, dinner will be served. Act Two will then carry on until a short intermission when dessert will be served. After dessert, the evening’s final scene will be played out, and the short live auction will take place.

Tickets can be purchased tomorrow (our Walmart Saturday is back!), from most board members and at Family Pet Connection, Jeff’s Copy Express, The UPS Store, Mutts, etc. and the shelter (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.).

As mentioned above, now that the killing heat has subsided, we’ll be back at Walmart once a month, and tomorrow (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) is the day for October. We’ll have Murder Mystery Dinner tickets for sale, along with our usual goodies (no baked goods this time — our bakers are too busy learning roles and have no time to make rolls). Our most dedicated four-legged volunteer, Ki the Kissing Pooch, will be “on duty” and can’t wait to greet all his friends again.

As a final note, please drop by Flower Tree Nursery to buy raffle tickets for a gorgeous 15-gallon blireiana plum tree valued at $79.99. This tree has striking leaf color in the fall and fragrant pink blossoms in the spring. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5. CAPS receives all proceeds of this drawing. The drawing will be held on Oct. 19 at Flower Tree, and you don’t have to be present to win.

This week’s article was contributed by Betty Duncan, a member of the CAPS board of directors.