Amazing Turnout for SVAPL Banquet

Submitted by: Stephanie Wigley

With an amazing turn out, the Swan Valley Animal Protection League held their annual banquet on April 13, 2024. With just under 200 people in attendance the night went off without a hitch.

With excellent food and wonderful prizes patrons partook in a variety of activities. The catering was done by Johnny and Jenna Catering Co who knocked it out of the park. The meal was superb and cooked to perfection. They did a wonderful job with the chicken, meat balls, spring vegetable medley and fresh garden salad. To top it off the cheesecake was the chefs kiss.

We had some great laughs with Dave Bettesworth as our master of ceremonies.

Lisa provided a video of our organization with some touching moments, President Stephanie gave a speech, and CatMan Dan, who’s been an awesome addition to our volunteer team, did a great speech.

Games for the evening were Cool Curling courtesy of Howie Scales, Plinko for Pets, Sylvester’s string pull, Rex’s ring toss and Buddy’s buried treasure. This year we also had Find Fishy which sold out quickly.

Raffle prizes were also drawn, we had an electric fire place from Home Hardware, $400 Valley Meat Packers gift card, $400 Dufresne gift card, $400 Co-op gift card and a custom made yard sign from Graziers Custom Manufacturing, with Graziers and Home Hardware donating a generous portion of the cost of their prizes! This year we had two 50/50 raffles as our first 50/50 maxed out at $6,000 with a $3,000 take home the lucky winner being Wendy Bouvier. The second 50/50 take home ended up being $685, with the winner being Amanda Hedch.

We had door prizes donated by amazing supporters. Sherry Martin and Cliff Arlt donated a wonderful fishing package and gardening package, a games package donated by the Roger’s family in loving memory of their dog Nova and two weekend passes plus camping to Dauphin’s Countryfest donated by Christina Parsons and family as well as Dauphins Countryfest!

We also had a silent auction with beautiful works of art and other generous donations. We had a cat condo donated by Peavey Mart, a hand painted violin donated by Usula Taylor, 20 yards of aggregate donated by Cook Bros Cartage, Buffalo art work donated by Linda Potts, Duct Cleaning donated by Mullins Plumbing and Geothermal and two pieces of Art Work done and donated by Dave Theunissen.

Along with the silent auction, door prizes and raffle prizes there were also numerous donations made by other businesses and members of the public. Without the generosity of the community we wouldn’t have pulled off such an event. Nikki, Chantelle, Lisa, Dan and everyone else who helped in some way shape or form made this banquet our best one yet.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the event, bought raffle and/or 50/50 tickets, or donated in some way shape or form. We hope to have the same level of support for any future events. We have such amazing community support and we wouldn’t be where we are without it!

Thank you all!

SVAPL Executive”