SVAPL Banquet Celebrates Triumph Over Trial

Submitted by:
Sherry Martin |

SVAPL enjoyed a very successful and sold out banquet on September 23, 2017.

Everyone had a great time visiting before dinner and checking out the items on the auction tables.


Click any picture for a larger version.

Dinner was a delicious meal catered by Verneece Eggie and her crew. Nobody went away hungry!

The Chance Auction table offered a variety of items that had people buying tickets to enter on their favorite choices. The Silent Auction featured larger items donated by Cook Bros. Cartage (20 yards of aggregate), Dave Theunissen (one of his beautiful oil paintings), Sherry Martin (autographed Blue Bombers jersey), Ursula Taylor Gallery (gorgeous wood painting by Ursula), Northern Specialties (dog house), and Fabriculous (soft quilted baby blanket).

The bidding was fierce, but the winners were: 20 yds. aggregate – Shane Unruh; oil painting – Cliff Arlt; wood painting – Rob Buchanan; baby quilt – Julie Gattinger; dog house – Danny Suchoplas; and Bombers Jersey – Linda R. 50/50 tickets went over very well and the big winner was Kevin Sprong. The amount will be determined and he will be presented with a cheque.

Holly Urban presented us with a wonderful video featuring some of the challenges we faced with badly injured and abandoned animals this past year.

Serenity was one of the featured animals. She is a young cat who was found on the side of the road, starved and near death, with two broken hips and a broken pelvis. She has since had surgery and is recovering beautifully.

Another featured girl was Gracie, a pregnant stray dog with a large partially healed burn on her back.







She was rescued and gave birth to 7 puppies who were all adopted out by Christmas. Gracie herself was just adopted into her forever home in August!

For every heartbreaking story, there is often a very happy ending. The last half of the video featured pictures of many cats and dogs having a great time in their new homes, very loved by their families.

From all of us at SVAPL, a heartfelt and sincere thank you to all of the sponsors who helped out in any way to make our banquet successful. The generous donations from our community businesses and individuals is really amazing.

Without all of the help from our volunteers, members and non-members alike, holding a large fundraiser like this wouldn’t be possible. Our employee Lisa Scales and her helper Morgan keep the shelter running smoothly with help from all of our volunteers. Their presence in the community gets the word out there about our organization and the challenges we face, and it definitely generates a lot of interest and support.

Last but most certainly not least, the support and generosity of people who donate, attend our functions, adopt animals, and help in a dozen other ways, is what keeps SVAPL going and allows us to help the animals that we do. The wonderful foster families that we have in place allow us to take in animals with special needs or those desperate for help that we have no space for at the facility. Thanks to all of you special people out there!