SPCA Fundraising

Every year the staff at Mill Bay Veterinary Hospital enjoy participating in #National Cupcake Day, which is a nationwide fundraiser for the SPCA and Humane Societies. This year we chose to donate all money raised to our local SPCA Branch. Operating in the Cowichan Valley for the last 22 years, the SPCA has a strong presence in our community.

Baking, decorating and upselling our cupcakes made the whole event very enjoyable for our staff. A few staff members baked cupcakes at home on their own time, and we met on the Sunday before the event and decorated all of the fresh little cakes together. As we all have different decorating capabilities the results were pretty original. Farm animals created from fondant, cupcakes iced with buttercream icing and decorated with candies and licorice, and simple chocolate frosted cupcakes filled our trays. With over 100 cupcakes ready to be sold to eager clients, we were all elated with the eye-pleasing cupcakes.

On Monday morning we arranged them at the front counter with a donation bucket beside them. There were even a few clients who made special orders to take to friends family and their co-workers. We were thankful to anyone who bought one treat or ten (there was some cheering and friendly banter for sure), our donation bucket slowly filled and by the end of the day, our final total was $472.06. The manager of the Cowichan SPCA Branch, Sandy Trent came in later in the week to collect the donations and was pleasantly surprised at our efforts. The money raised will go towards medical bills for animals in the shelter, food costs and the low-income spay/neuter program.

I know when I look back at this little event, I feel warm inside and a smile crosses my face, I’m sure all of my co-workers that participated alongside me feel the same way. If doing some baking with friends can raise that much money, the possibilities are endless. Perhaps next year we can step it up and join the Treat Week fundraising for SPCA and Humane Societies! It is a good feeling to know that a little effort goes a long way. Want to help out? Save all of your Country Grocer receipts and bring them down to us. Country Grocer gives gift cards to the Cowichan SPCA Branch when they collect a certain amount of receipts.

Have bags of bottles to be recycled? Take them to the Bottle Depot on Fisher Road in Cobble Hill and say, ‘hey, please donate the money from my bottle return to the Cowichan SPCA!’ Watch our Facebook page for any upcoming SPCA fundraisers, and remember, sparing a few hours here and there does help.

Written by: Meghan Seal, Inventory Specialist/Senior Receptionist