“Honky-Tonkiest Fur Ball Ever”

While final figures were not available by the time The Loop needed to go to press, preliminary figures for this year’s Fur Ball , the primary annual fund-raising event for Vashon Island Pet Protectors (VIPP), suggest that the soirée was a smashing success.

The event was held on Sunday, October 23rd from 3:30 to 8:30 PM, once again at the O Space which has hosted the event for the last few years; in years past the event was hosted at the VFW Hall, but the Ball’s growth in popularity necessitated the move.

This year the theme was "The Honky-Tonkiest Fur Ball Ever" and featured both live and recorded western music and both event staff and attendees sporting various degrees of Western wear from simple bandannas to full-on cowboy regalia down to the chaps and 10-gallon hats. Structured primarily as a charity auction, the event is broken down into a dizzying multiplicity of different auction-oriented sub-programs in an effort to find an auction to suit every taste. Just to list a few:

Wine in a Bag - participants could take their chances buying concealed bottles of wine ranging in quality from the "every day" to "absolutely fabulous".

Buy It Now - for those whose constitutions cannot stand blood-pumping competition, Buy It Now offers participants the ability to simply pay the marked price for an item.

Silent auctions - several tables full of items up for auction where participants simply wander around and enter their participant number and dollar bids on a form associated with each item. While this particular auction suggests a certain amount of anonymity on the part of bidders, in practical application a great deal of entertainment could be had watching supposedly "anonymous" contenders attempting to silently glare each other into submission.

Paws for Dessert - tables of participants donate money collectively to earn a position at the pole to "dash" over and grab desserts off a long table, opulently overflowing with desserts of every imaginable variety.

Live Auction - theoretically the primary event of the evening, the live auction featured approximately 42 auction items encompassing selections to suit nearly every taste. Jewelry, art objects, private concerts, an African photo safari, vacations, airplane rides, welding classes, and a variety of food-oriented possibilities were all on offer. Once again this year, the live auction was presided over by Laura Michalek, a nationally renown fundraising auctioneer. Significantly, many items went for prices in excess of their declared values.

Items for all of the various auction events were supplied by a mix of commercial and private donors.

The primary sponsors for the Fur Ball that paid fees for the privilege were: Island Home Center and Lumber, Palouse Winery, Fair Isle Animal Clinic, J.R. Crawford (Realtor), Pandora’s Box, Sue Carette (Realtor), Karen Hust and Todd Vogel. The silent auction table sponsors were: Michelle and Scott Harvey, Cindy and Hans Koch, Piro Kramar, Daphne Ashling Purpus, and Vashon Print and Design.

According to Jacquie Perry, the Fur Ball coordinator, preliminary estimates indicate between $65,000 and $70,000 net proceeds for the Ball, an increase of between $10,000-$15,000 over last year, a very significant rise.

An especially large jump in charitable revenue occurred this year in the Paws for Dessert event, which earned approximately $8,000 compared to $5,000 last year. Ms. Perry attributes the growth to the Paws sponsor, Pandora’s Box, for including an extra incentive this year by offering a gift certificate to the highest bidder at each table. The gift certificates ranged in value from $20-$100 in Pandora’s Box merchandise or services.

Also very successful this year was the Paddles for Pets, a.k.a the "direct contribution" event. Quoting Ms. Perry, "We came close to tripling what was donated last year. Our total was over $17,000 and that is before any matching funds come in from corporations at which donors work. I believe the main difference was that Elaine Summers and Pete Droge put together an incredible video that reminded guests [of] the purpose of VIPP. Elaine even composed and sang a song for the piece. I believe that really made a big difference". VIPP President Geoff Fletcher is looking into the possibility of making the video available online.

Participants also had three chance drawing opportunities to win a free pet microchipping safety implant, provided by Island Realtor J.R. Crawford, to be performed by Fair Isle Animal Clinic. All event attendees also received a 20% discount off a microshipping implant simply by presenting Ms. Crawford’s brochure at Fair Isle. Ms. Crawford was the "Deputy Green" sponsor for the event, a new sponsorship. Significant effort was made by organizers to reduce the amount of garbage waste created by the event which is something new this year. According to Mr. Fletcher, "In speaking with Jacquie today, I think we’re only going to walk away from the Fur Ball with four big garbage bags full of garbage. If you think about how we had probably over 300 people there, and that’s all we had in the way of garbage, that’s pretty phenomenal from the green perspective."

Mr. Fletcher, solemnly donning his event-traditional, highly formal, hand-made animal-ears woolen cap-with-dangly-tying-bits, wished to express his gratitude to the Vashon community for the success of this year’s Fur Ball: "The kind of spirit we saw at this year’s auction really tells us what VIPP is all about. ... As an organization, we really appreciate the community’s involvement in everything we do and their outpouring of support for us this year. Seeing this kind of generosity during these difficult economic times was so unexpected... we are deeply grateful".

VIPP is described on their own website (www.vipp.org) as "...a no-kill and non-profit 501c3 animal rescue organization run by compassionate and animal loving volunteers..." that "...works each day to improve the quality of life for companion animals on Vashon Island".