The party has been held in homes across the U.S., in a Brooklyn loft, at a fair in Iowa and even at a park in British Columbia. Each time the party has been tailored-to-suit, given a style and presentation that befits those who are throwing the party.

Indeed, the Best Friends “Party for a Purpose,” designed to boost our membership and rally support for our mission of bringing about a time of No More Homeless Pets, has taken on a life of its own. The party’s most recent incarnation was at a hotel in San Diego.

The Residence Inn by Marriot at San Diego-Mission Valley hosted a Party for a Purpose, drawing about 100 people. Live music, a vegetarian buffet, complementary beer and wine, an auction and a raffle—all to raise money for and awareness of Best Friends—filled the bill at this meticulously-planned event.

Lauren Svedman, cause marketing specialist at Best Friends, manned the Best Friends booth at the party, fielding questions about the organization and the work we do.

“The people I spoke with were very interested in learning about Best Friends,” Svedman says. “We even had people who were ready to volunteer right there and then.”

That excitement manifested in the auctions and raffle, which together raised nearly $1400 for Best Friends.

Several local and national businesses donated items to the raffle drawing and silent auction. Birch Aquarium donated entry tickets to its exhibit. The restaurant Rubios offered free lunches. Salt Creek Golf Course offered rounds of golf. And one very generous person donated, at the last minute, a pair of tickets to that night’s San Diego’s Padres game. All in all, there were 18 prizes donated to the raffle with a total value of over $2300. To top it off, Marriot donated ten vacation packages for the auction, valued at nearly $5000 total. 

Svedman says that many of the guests brought their dogs to the event, and Residence Inn catered to the dogs by providing patches of grass that could be moved from one place to another.

Many of the party guests were volunteers at local shelters, and were incredibly interested in the work Best Friends does.

“People were definitely inspired,” Svedman says. “I heard a lot of people talk about opening their own sanctuaries and other ways they could help animals.”

Much of the credit for the success of the party goes to Ketra Slayton-Carter, general manager of Residence Inn Carmel Mountain Ranch-Rancho Bernardo. She was primarily responsible for not just orchestrating the event and organizing those who volunteered at it, but bringing in all the donations that benefited Best Friends.

“Ketra was amazingly deft in bringing everything together for this event,” Svedman says. “From the raffle and auction items to the entertainment to the food, she did so much to make this event a success. We couldn’t be more appreciative.”

Todd Capizzo, general manager of Residence Inn at San Diego-Mission Valley, and Trent Selbrede, general manager of Residence Inn at Scripps-Poway, were also instrumental in the event’s organization. Slayton-Carter, Capizzo, and Selbrede are all members of the San Diego Residence Inn Local Culture Council.

Composed of employees from the nine Residence Inns in the San Diego area, the council is designed to enhance the local community through public service and charity events. The San Diego council, which has dubbed itself S.U.R.F. D.A.W.G.S., has taken the concept of “home” as one of the centerpieces of its mission.

“We decided that the Best Friends mission, that every pet have a home, fits in,” Slayton-Carter says. “And Residence Inn has always accepted pets, because we’re the home away from home for so many people.”

For information on how you can host your own Party for a Purpose, click here.

As part of Best Friends’ 25th anniversary in 2009, our goal is to double our membership so we can double our efforts to bring about a time when all companion animals have a forever home. What can you do to help? Give the Gift of a Best Friends membership to family and friends.