How to put on your own Spay-ghetti and No Balls Dinner and Auction! A Fundraising Idea for Spay / Neuter Education

1. The Location: First you must secure a location for your event. Our first year, in 2003, our Spay-ghetti and No Balls Dinner was held at the local Elks Lodge, who let us use their facility for no charge!
Now, our event is held at Chadz, the grooviest little coffee shop in town! and right on Main Street!

2. The Food: Get grocery stores to donate what they can. Items such as paper plates, napkins, plastic silverware, paper table cloths, cups, iced tea, and coffee were all donated by our local stores.

3. Ask local restaurants for donations. In our case, one restaurant Chico Hot Springs makes the garlic bread and dessert, and Pinky's and Adagio make the veggie sauces. Various individuals chip in on the salad fixings, 1 pound of olive oil, and the noodles (40 pounds!!), which Pinky's orders for us through their wholesaler!

(If you can’t get a restaurant to donate sauce, here is a suggestion - have a bunch of people each make 1 gallon of veggie sauce. Then mix them together. This always turns out super-yummy!)

4. Pepsi or Coca Cola might want to donate soft drinks, if you ask them nicely! Since we hold our event at a coffee shop, we only serve ice water, and let people buy their drinks from Chadz.

5. Ask a local band donate its services for the night - music makes it more festive! We don't have room for a band at Chadz, so I made a CD of fun toe-tapping animal songs! Download our animal song list.

Excuse me, I just have to share this photo of my super groovy parents, who spent their 40th Anniversary working all day at a Spay/Neuter event, and THEN shared their giant cake at the 2003 Spay-ghetti Dinner !

6. The Noodle Secret: cook the noodles the day before your event!

Here is how we do it: We are SO lucky that the Elks Lodge lets us use their lovely industrial kitchen the afternoon before the dinner. We get 4 GIANT pots of water boiling, and cook the noodles according to package directions, then drain and rinse well in cold water. When we drain the water, we pour it through a strainer with another giant pot underneath. That way we can use the hot water again, 2 or 3 times - until it gets cloudy - to cook more noodles.

So while Parke cooks the noodles, I'm busy rinsing them with cold water. Then, in a giant metal bowl, I put 2-3 Tablespoons of olive oil and crush 2-3 fresh garlic cloves, and a bunch of the drained noodles and stir them up. Then I fill one gallon zip-lock bags with the noodles, and put the bags in a big box and put them in the fridge.

The night of the dinner, use pasta pans with inserts and bring water to a boil. Place the cooked noodles in the boiling water to heat it up, then drain, and place in a roaster at 200 degrees. Add a little more olive oil and fresh crushed garlic.

7. How much food to make?
In 2009, we served about 100 people. Here are the notes we took:

Pinky’s - donated 16 gallons veggie sauce, we had 3 gallons left over, which we froze and served at the next spay/neuter clinic
Chico Hot Springs - donated garlic bread for #125 people and 2 large sheets of brownies (we ran out)

Ordered from Sysco through Pinky’s:
20 lbs dry spaghetti - ran out - for 2010 we will order 40 lbs!!
1 gallon of Italian dressing - for 2010 we will just but 12 small individual bottles - much easier.
4 cases lettuce spring mix - for 2010 we will order 3
1 lb olive oil for cooking the noodles
(total = $87.53)

Don’t worry if you have too much food! We freeze our leftovers, then serve them to vets and volunteers at Spay/Neuter Clinics, or give extras to the local soup kitchen.

8. Advertising
- Every year, we put a 1/2 page ad in the Livingston Weekly. (We DON'T advertise in t he Livingston Enterprise, because the head of advertising there is still Neighborhood Pet Killer Jim Durfey.)
- Classified ads are very effective and inexpensive!!
- Write a press release and send it to your local paper and radio station.

Lynn Weaver, of Sparkling Dawg Designs, creates and prints 25 copies of a new poster for us every year. How did we get to be so lucky???

Don't forget to mention all of the businesses and restaurants that support the event!!
Then you'll have to get a volunteer to put up the posters...

9. Things you might need to borrow:
- Banquet tables and chairs. True Value in Livingston donates theirs rental tables and chairs for this event!
- Steam Roasters. You will need at least two! One for the veggie sauce, and one for the noodles. In 2009 we needed another for the Field Roast Vegan Italian Sausage!
- Have power strips and heavy duty extension chords on hand!

10. How many volunteers you will need:
4 people to help set up. We start set up at 3pm, to be ready for dinner at 5pm.
1 person at least to be the cashier at the door
5 Kitchen Stations, each with one person:
Bread
Salad
Sauce
Noodles
Expeditor!
4 Dining Room Stations:
3 servers
1 water prep
4 people will be needed for tear down at 8:30.

Our 2006 Kitchen crew! Hillary Johnson and Dan Conelley start on the noodles!

Local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts make excellent volunteers! We also have wonderful helpers from CounterPoint!
We always invite community leaders to be our waiters. They love it!

Before your dinner: we found it very helpful to roll plastic silverware in paper napkins,
and secure them with these little napkin bands:

You can probably find a restaurant that will give you a couple hundred of these handy dandy thingys!

11. What to charge?
SUGGESTED DONATION - $10 for adults, $5 for kids -most people give more!
We find that having a Suggested Donation works well, then families who can't afford it can give less,
but many people will give more.

12. Invite Local Celebrities!
The reigning Mrs. Montana came to our 2006 Spay-ghetti and No Balls Dinner!

2006 Mrs. Montana Cherith Hamilton, and her daughter Nicole.

Ideas for the Silent Auction

Silent Auction Sheets -
Have value of item listed, and HIGH minimum starting bid (at least 40- 60 % of value), circled in RED ink.
After all, it's a fund raiser, not a yard sale!
Bid in increments of $ 5

Offer ONE item per silent auction sheet. (Many fund raisers bundle lots of items together in a package. You will raise more money if the items are separate! Items worth $10 - $ 20 usually go for more than they are worth!)

Carefully describe item at top of sheet so there is no confusion regarding item being bid on.

Have the bidder PRINT their name, phone number, and price he/she is bidding. Better yet, assign bidders a bidding number, so bids are anonymous. (People don’t want to bid against their friends- so this will bring the price up!)

Sample Auction Sheet:
Download the Auction Sheet we use , or cut and paste this:

Spay-ghetti Dinner Auction will end at 8:30
winners will be announced and can pay for and pick up items at that time
winners not present will be called
All Proceeds go to
Your Local Animal Shelter
and
Your Local Spay / Neuter Education Program

Item donated by: ..........................................................................................._______________________
Value of item: ..............................................................................................._______________________
Please Bid in Minimum Increments of $5
Opening Bid for this item is..........................................................................________________________

Name or Bidder Number______________________________Phone # _____________Bid___________

Name or Bidder Number______________________________Phone # _____________Bid___________

Name or Bidder Number______________________________Phone # _____________Bid___________

Name or Bidder Number______________________________Phone # _____________Bid___________

Name or Bidder Number______________________________Phone # _____________Bid___________

During the Auction
- It is nice to hold the Silent Auction in the same room as the Dinner. If possible, have the items where people waiting in line for their dinner can see them! In our situation in Livingston, we hold the Spay-ghetti Dinner and Auction during the Livingston Gallery Association September Art Walk - so each gallery has a small silent auction, with the giant silent auction in our gallery

- Have a band playing, or some kind of entertainment.

- Near the end of the Auction, start announcing “Silent Auction ends in 15 minutes”, then 10 minutes, then 5, then 2... Start a bidding frenzy!

Check out at the end of the Auction -
- Alphabetize winners by last name. (Unless bidding #’s were used!) If one person has multiple purchases, add them up and have his / her total ready.

- Announce winners so they can pick up their items and pay that night!

- Speed up check-out. Have 4 lines for people to check out alphabetically : A-G, H-M, N-S, T-Z

- Have one cashier for cash, one for checks, and one for credit cards.

Other ideas for your Auction:
1. Have a table of items for sale from your local animal shelter ! “Did you Know- these items and more are available at the Your Local Shelter?”

2. If you are looking for T-Shirts to sell, there is a great selection of hilarious Spay / Neuter shirts at www.inhighspirits.com

3. Sell Montana Spay Neuter Task Force Bumper Stickers!

4. Have giant posters that show the cost of fixing and vaccinating a cat and a dog, and other posters that say what it costs to adopt a fixed pet at your local shelter..... Many people don't realize what a good deal the adoption fee is!!

5. Have donation jars in various areas ... the desert table, at check in, near the band. Have donation jars LABELED, please make checks out to ___________.

Put out complementary dishes of Life Savers and Smarties!

6. Have posters on the walls with fun facts about your local animal shelter. Have photos of animals available for adoption from your shelter at each table!

7. When collecting auction items, keep in mind that restaurant gift certificates are the most popular items, and often go for more than the retail value!

8. Make little posters for each business that donated to your event. Thank you True Value! Thank you Pinky's!

9. If possible, put a thank-you ad in a monthly paper listing all volunteers and businesses that helped with the event.

10. Have a program that lists all donated auction items and their dollar values, list the 27 Ways to be Kind to Animals, and thank ALL the volunteers and businesses that donated food!

27 Ways to be Kind to Animals
1. Spay or neuter your dog or cat *
2. Adopt your pets from an animal shelter *
3. Spend quality time with your pet daily*
4. Take pets for annual health exams *
5. Make sure they always wear up to date ID tags*
6. Provide pets with plenty of exercise*
7. Don’t leave your dog alone in a car *
8. Provide nutritious food and constant fresh water for your pets*
9. Use a non-choking collar on your dog or cat*
10. Make sure they have access to shade in the summer, heat in the winter, and a place that’s always dry*
11. Groom your pet often*
12. Keep your vet’s office and emergency numbers handy*
13. Never kick, hit, or spank a pet*
14. Keep pets away from toxic household chemicals*
15. Volunteer to care for a busy or elderly neighbor’s pet*
16. Be aware when driving to avoid hitting animals*
17. Volunteer at your local animal shelter*
18. Buy from companies that don’t do animal testing*
19. Report animal abuse to proper authorities*
20. Pick up litter that might injure animals*
21. Plant trees and shrubs in your back yard to make birds feel welcome*
22. Never buy anything made from wild animals*
23. Put up a bird feeder*
24. Report injured animals to animal shelters and injured wildlife to Fish and Game
25. Leave all animals, including insects, in their natural homes*
26. Keep chocolate away from your pets- it can poison them*
27. The best way to be kind to animals - DON'T EAT THEM!!*

Brownies:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup soymilk
1.5 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi/sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 8 inch square pan.
2. Put the oil, maple syrup , soy milk, vanilla, and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture with a rubber spatula. Don’t overmix.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Put the batter in the pan and spread it out evenly. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Don't overbake. Cool before cutting.

Vegan Blue Cheese Dressing:
1 block firm or extra firm tofu
4 - 8 cloves garlic, minced (to taste)
the Juice of 2 lemons (1/2 cup)
2 cups Veganaise (full 16 oz small jar)
1/2 cup tahini
1 1 TBSP plus tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup fresh chives
1/2 cup fresh parsley
Salt and Pepper, to taste

I like to put all the ingredients in a tall jar, and mix with an immersion blender – you can also use a food processor….
If you leave it a bit lumpy it really is like Blue Cheese Dressing!

Vegan Parmesan Cheese
1 1/2 cups raw cashew pieces*
1 cup walnuts
2 cups nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tblsp seasoning salt
1 1/2 Tblsp garlic powder (NOT garlic salt)
1 1/2 Tblsp of onion powder (NOT onion salt)
4 Tblsp of arrowroot powder –
(can use cornstarch, but when heated it doesn't get stringy like arrowroot.)
*I have sucessfully substituted roasted, salted cashews by decreasing the amount of seasoning salt to 1 Tbsp.
Directions:

1. Using a VERY dry food processor, blend the nuts till they are very fine.
2. Then, blend in everything else until thoroughly mixed.
3. To make a cheesy sauce, add one heaping 1/2 cup of mix to 1 cup of water and stir over medium heat till thickened. Use less water and add salsa for quick queso dip.