It’s a “cowboy thang” on Saturday night, but anyone with a hankerin’ for a barbecue buffet, the opportunity to bid on lots of neat stuff and the desire to help a good cause is invited to the South Wind Hospice annual fund-raiser at the Pratt Area 4-H Center. Casual attire is suggested, western wear optional.

Tickets for the benefit are $25 and may be purchased at the door or at the South Wind Hospice office at 126 S. Main.

The evening begins with a silent auction at 6:30, followed by dinner at 7 and a live auction at 7:30. The auction brought in $18,000 last year; the goal is to match the $25,000 raised last week in Russell, one of the 17 counties in the South Wind service area, Development Director Sharon Will said.

Approximately 15 percent of the Hospice budget of $4.5 million is raised by donations, she said. Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance pay the bulk of the operating costs, but donations are critical.

Patients are never turned away, regardless of insurance coverage, she said, and during the past year the Hospice Home has provided end of life care for several patients who had no insurance. The Home on Yucca Lane has 12 rooms; an average of eight are occupied each day. Some patients make it their home, paying for room and board. Others may live there for only a few days.

The annual Tree of Life, beginning after Thanksgiving, is the largest fund-raiser for the organization, Will said, but the auction is coming close.

Although she is adamant about not putting the Trees of Life out until after Thanksgiving, Will acknowledges that the auction will be a good opportunity for some early Christmas shopping. A Wii, said to be one of the hottest items on holiday shopping lists and likely to be in short supply, is among the auction items.

The biggest item is a pontoon boat. Also included are crocheted doilies, quilts, gift certificates for Pratt eateries, family fun packages, river rock, barrels of oil and bushels of corn — something for anyone and fitting lots of pocketbooks.

After reorganizing last May, the Hospice is “back on track,” Will said. Some discussion before that time of turning the home into assisted living has since been discounted, and CEO Stuart Reed has made providing adequate staffing to ensure quality patient care a priority.