The Charity Auction of Gifts and Promises held at Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham College on Saturday 24 November to celebrate our 75th year raised over £9,600 between the auction itself and a prize raffle held on the night. The funds will be put towards our "Raise the Roof Project" to literally re-roof the Dog Rehoming Kennels.
We would like to thank everyone involved in making the event a truly memorable occasion, including Carbonflame Ltd for sponsoring the Pol Roger Champagne, Beards the Jewellers for donating all the profit from their new 'Happy Paws' range of Lapel badges/Tie Pins, ArtPortraits for donating 20% of all sales on the night to the Shelter, Gusto for providing the wonderful canapes, Regency Chocolate Fountains, Chloe the Midnight Storyteller, Nicolas from Mirage Magic and Liz Poole from The Cotswold Auction Company. Apero Events, Carbonflame Ltd and the Beechwood Shopping Centre donated the raffle prizes of a case of Louis Roederer, Pol Roger and Veuve Clicquot champagne and Cheltenham Bespoke donated the Golden Ticket Prize of a Boxed bottle of Pol Roger. Our grateful thanks also go to Jason Briggs of Bang & Olufsen of Cheltenham for donating a surprise gift of a B&O bottle opener for all our guests in their "doggy" bags - very handy at this time of year! Of course the auction would not have been such a huge success without the support of everyone who donated an item or promise many of whom came on the night.
For further details on "Happy Paws" please go to our Lynx page and contact Beards direct.
Special mention goes to Martin Horwood MP and Katie Fforde for drawing the raffle prizes - both of their donated lots sold for £400.00 each! The highest bid was for the Gusto dinner party for 8 people which went for £440! The French Silk Knickers from Nara Kahkonen were on prominent display and were paraded around the room for all to admire - the highest bidder is still to decide what HE will do with them!
The response both on the night and since has been really gratifying - it was a wonderul atmosphere and a perfect setting as guests arrived at "The Dog Entrance". Everyone wants to know when the next one will be and companies have already pledged to donate again for next year as well as hold individual fundraisers.
Finally Christina from Carbonflame, Dylan from Beards and Lisa from Artportraits are already planning next years auction - there will still be the ever popular items which never fail to attract bids - but you can expect the unexpected as well!
So if you want to come back next year, have a lovely evening, spend money with a good conscience, as it really does make a difference, then get your 2008 diary and calendar out and mark off:
Saturday 15 November 2008 - At Cheltenham College - Full details TBC