Community members will be able to eat steak, dance and participate in a live auction this Saturday while supporting animal welfare.
The Monroe County Humane Association’s annual Tails on the Town fundraiser will take place Saturday at the Bloomington Country Club. The event, which includes dinner, music, dancing and auctions, will bring in 200 attendees and raise more than 20 percent of the association’s annual budget.
The event is vital in funding the association’s many programs, including a low-income veterinary clinic, a pet food pantry, mobile vaccine clinics, animal education initiatives and an animal therapy team.
“It’s a fun evening to get together and relax and have fun supporting animal welfare in our community,” event coordinator Kimberly Goy said.
Planning the event has been anything but relaxing, Goy said.
Goy and her team started planning for the event last December. They coordinated with the donors, the hosts at the country club, the auctioneers and the attendees to make sure the event runs smoothly.
If anything does go wrong, she said they will just have to roll with the punches.
“There’s always something that goes wrong, but you just deal with it and put a smile on your face and remember why you’re doing all this,” she said.
Goy also said planning the event would have been impossible without the support of her committee, interns, volunteers and donors.
Almost everything — from the centerpieces to the wine and beer — was donated, she said. The wine came from Oliver Winery. The beer was from Upland Brewery. The desserts were donated by Kroger, and the dinner of crab cakes, grilled sirloin and vegetable strudels came from the country club.
“I could sit at my desk all day, and I still wouldn’t be able to do this myself,” she said. “It takes a community.”
After all the planning, Goy said the best feeling in the world is to see the event come together. The end product makes all the work worth it, she said.
“There’s just a huge sigh of relief, and then you look around the room and see the attendees smiling and laughing and having fun and just being happy to support the cause,” Goy said.
One of Goy’s favorite parts of the evening is the auction, which includes smaller items such as yoga classes, golf instruction, and local food and restaurant vouchers.
The live auction comes next. Professional auctioneers present items such as a private airplane ride over Monroe County, a hot air balloon ride and an experience playing and painting with walruses at the Indianapolis Zoo.
Goy said attendees can be competitive during the live auctions, and it can fun to see them dress up in fancy cocktail dress, then throw up their bid cards while yelling at the auctioneers.
After the auctions, attendees will dance and listen to music by a Bloomington-based folk and rock band called Five Spoke Wheel. They will also hear representatives from the humane association speak about the changes they have undergone and the things they have accomplished in the past year.
While Tails on the Town is almost sold out for this year, Goy said there are plenty of opportunities for people to help out during the rest of the year. Volunteers can help plan events, help at the veterinary clinic and work with animal ambassadors at schools after filling out an online application.
Goy said the humane association is here to serve the community but it cannot do that without the support of that community. As a result, she said she is grateful to everyone who helps organize the event and keeps the association running every day.
“We can’t do this on our own,” she said. “We need all of you. We need the community.”
