It’s the quintessential Manteca dog house.

And your dog can call it home if you’re the winning bidder during the live auction at the 35th annual Manteca/Lathrop Boys & Girls Club telethon on Monday and Tuesday.

Dubbed “Home is where you bury your bone” it was designed and  built by a team  that is part of a Manteca home building tradition stretching back 60 years.

Second  generation Raymus home building siblings Toni and Bob Raymus — owners of Raymus Homes — and a crew of volunteers from Better Built Truss, Spaces,  Gonzalez Inc., American Liberty Roofing, and Dale Russell Painting — teamed up to make a one-of-a-kind dog house that looks like it belongs as part of the Raceway model home collection off of Woodward Avenue in South Manteca.

They donated time and material in a bid to make sure 1,500 kids in Manteca and Lathrop have a safe place to go after school and during the summer where they can be kids as well as receive mentoring. They hope the dog house will bring in money toward the goal of $120,000 needed to help run the club.

At one point, the Raymus family built one out of every four homes in Manteca.

The siblings’ father — Antone Raymus — was a key player in getting the Boys & Girls Club built. He donated $100,000 nearly 40 years ago while contractors and labor unions stepped up to provide the volunteer labor much like the dog house project.

The dog house includes a modern sloping roof, spacious living area and a front porch.

Among the 41 live bid board items are:

• naming rights to a street.

• an autographed jersey signed by 49ers great Dwight Clark.

• two tickets to the Sept. 19 football game between UCLA and BYU

• 10 other sports memorabilia including an autographed photo of 49ers quarterback Colin Kapernick and an autographed matted photo of Mickey Mantle.

• A kids’ party at the Manteca Union Road firehouse for 10 kids including hotdogs, cake, and ice cream.

• lunch for two with mayor-elect Steve DeBrum at Ernie’s.

• art created by Boys & Girls Club members

• wine tasting for up to 80 people at Delicato Vineyards

A complete list of live auction bid items appears in an ad sponsored by Doctors Hospital of Manteca on the back page of today’s On the Road section. 

The live auction items are in addition to over 100 silent auction items people are encouraged to drop by the club to bid on while checking out the entertainment and the main telethon broadcast room.

• • •

Volunteers man pledge phones

The telethon can be viewed Monday from 5 to 8 p.m. and Tuesday from 5 to 10 p.m. on Comcast Channel 97 or by dropping by the clubhouse at 545 W. Alameda St.

Volunteer groups manning the phones Monday include Doctors Hospital of Manteca, Manteca Police Seniors Helping Area Residents and Police, Starbucks, Lathrop Chamber of Commerce, Manteca Chamber of Commerce, Manteca Interact, and His Way Recovery.

Helping on the phones Tuesday are Women of Woodbridge, Calvary Community Church, Del Webb at Woodbridge Men’s Club, Manteca Kiwanis, Building Industry of the Delta, His Way Recovery, the Place of Refuge, Manteca Soroptimists, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Christian Worship Center, and Manteca Youth Focus.

The telethon consists of four components: volunteers manning phones to call individuals and businesses for pledges, entertainment, a live auction, and a silent auction. 

The entertainment consists of local groups ranging from singers and bands to dance groups. 

The telethon has been a Manteca Thanksgiving week tradition for 35 years.

The telethon is the major fundraiser for the club that provides a safe haven for 1,500 youth from ages 6 to 17. Since its inception, the telethon has raised in excess of $2.5 million over the course of 35 years.