Wagging tails greeted diners at Cantina 76 during a recent fundraiser supporting Final Victory Animal Rescue.

Final Victory cares for nearly 300 animals. The nonprofit, no-kill shelter relies on public support to continue its operations.

On April 9, Cantina 76 hosted its first Percent Night with Final Victory.

Ten percent of Cantina 76’s sales from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. went to the rescue, said Alexis Wilkinson, the front-of-house manager at Cantina 76.

“Everything that we get from events like this does go directly to supporting all of the pets,” said Payton Fronapfel, a Final Victory volunteer.

Cantina 76 has supported the rescue in the past.

The employees provided food for runners during the organization’s Zoomies for a Cause event, Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson said the restaurant regularly does percent nights for other organizations, including causes outside of animal rescues.

“We just did one the other night for PCAA, which is like Prevent Child Abuse America,” Wilkinson said. “So we’re always doing stuff like that to give back. And it’s just little things that we can do to give back to the community, and we enjoy that.”

The partnership with Final Victory is part of the restaurant’s broader effort to support local organizations.

The percent night helps raise money and get the organization out to the community. It also helps to let people know which dogs are adoptable and tells them places they can volunteer, Fronapfel said.

“We came because we have an application in with Final Victory and we wanted to get to know them a little better,” Penny Yanacheck said. “We wanted to see some of the pups and try to narrow down our search.”

The rescue relies on volunteers and donations in addition to visibility.

“We will take basically anything,” Fronapfel said. “They’re always in need of food for either cats or dogs, always in need of things like towels, bedsheets, those can be used or new.”

Final Victory recently received enough funding to put a down payment on a transport van, but the van still needs modifications to make it suitable for animal transport, such as an air conditioning unit and a grille guard, Final Victory Director Michael Sniezek said in a Facebook post.

Final Victory is working on another project as well.

“They’re also expanding the facility,” Fronapfel said. 

Expanding the facility to 4,800 square feet will cost $400,000, Final Victory said in a Facebook post. The daily cost of having that many animals in one place also costs money.

“The plans include indoor/outdoor runs, proper drainage, and features designed to reduce stress, noise and the spread of illness,” Final Victory said in a Facebook post. “It will also include a dedicated cat room, allowing us to expand our impact for cats in need.” 

Fundraisers like the percent night at Cantina 76 help cover both daily care and larger projects like the facility expansion.

“It’s just important to give back to our community, in any way we can,” Wilkinson said. “We’ll probably hopefully do more of these. I think that would be great.”