NATCHEZ — When the wind blew through the Junior Auxiliary canteen Saturday, it brought the smell of spice and shellfish through one door and out the other.

Inside the canteen, Junior Auxiliary members worked to pile plates high with potatoes, corn and a pound of shrimp, and just outside the back door volunteers and members from the Natchez High School football team sweated over the boiling pots where the food was being prepared.

And while a shrimp boil might just seem like a fun way to spend a Saturday in April, in this case it was for a good cause.

The Junior Auxiliary was selling the plates to raise money for their local service work, which has a special emphasis on children.

“We are a non-profit, and everything we do turns around to the children,” Junior Auxiliary President Cara Moody said.

This was the 13th year the Junior Auxiliary has hosted the shrimp boil.

The club has a Partners in Education partnership with West Primary School, and they work with the Sunshine Shelter, Kyle’s House and the Guardian Shelter, among other organizations.

They also do Family Miracles, in this case helping a local family financially so the children can participate in baseball, Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts, Collins said.

“Basically, we do things that help enrich their lives,” she said.

The goal of the shrimp boil was to raise between $2,000 and $3,000 in profits, a goal they were able to reach, shrimp boil coordinator Karen Collins said.

“This is one of our biggest financial projects we do in the year,” she said.

Along with the help the group received from the football team, the Junior Auxiliary received donations from Natchez Regional Hospital, the Natchez Markets, Natchez Rehabilitation and Pearl Street Pasta that helped make the boil possible, Collins said.

The next Junior Auxiliary fundraiser will be a garage sale in June.