What do Robin Williams, Gordie Howe, Dick Van Dyke, Donald Trump, the Vancouver Canucks and Mark Madryga have in common?

They've all autographed a tie that will go to silent auction as part of Royal City Jewelers and Loans' 12th annual tie auction.

Company president Howard Isman said he hoped this year's auction of the VIP autographed 60 ties would raise more than the $11,000 the auction raised last year.

All proceeds go to the food bank of Greater Vancouver.

Isman said the ties were displayed in shadow boxes, often including other mementos of the person, and come with a certificate of authenticity.

"All the ties are in nice wooden frames," he said.

"They're very, very nice and make beautiful gifts for Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries or whatever."

There are ties signed by Ben Stiller, Jay Leno, Avril Lavigne, Bob Barker, the Vancouver Whitecaps, the B.C. Lions, Barenaked Ladies, Battlestar Galactica (Jamie Bamber and James Callis), Scotty Bowman, David Foster, David Suzuki, Alex Trebek and more.

Interested people can make a bid in the store, by phone, or online until bidding closes at 3 p.m. on Nov. 29.

Many of the ties are not simply autographed but personalized.

"We have an autographed tie from Robert Bateman, the artist, on which above his autographed signature he has drawn an owl's head," Isman said.

The package also contains a large lithograph of Bateman's work and a newspaper write-up on the artist.

"We also have a tie, not only autographed, but completely decorated by Sarah McLachlan," he said. Her package also contains a bonus CD.

Many of the celebrities have contributed to the auction before, and are helping out again.

Isman secured Trump's tie for the first time last year, and The Donald is now a regular.

"He knows about us, and he's in there for us," Isman said.

Others, like Bowman, have sent a tie every year for many years.

Isman started the auction 12 year ago after reading about the difficulties the food bank faced and "deciding to do something about it."

He said getting the ties required a mix of ingenuity, luck and a lot of hard work.

"We get them various ways: some are easy to get, some are difficult to get," he said.

"We pursue them through agents, managers, any way we can ... until we finally find somebody who knows somebody who gets them for us."

Some ties arrive in New Westminster with miles under their belt and a great back-story.

"Last year we were trying to get Larry King from CNN. We sent a tie to his headquarters in Atlanta. We got an e-mail back saying, 'Sorry, Mr. King is not here he's gone to Los Angeles and we are going to forward the tie to LA,' " Isman said.

The tie was sent on but arrived in Los Angeles after King had left for New York. It was then forward to New York where, again, it missed King who had returned to his head office in Atlanta.

"Well, the tie never got to him but he did find out about it from someone in his office. So he sent us his own tie and it got to us a week before bidding closed," Isman said.

"And we had two people very hot for it and we got $300 for his tie."

Royal City Jewelers and Loans pay for auction expenses, so that every cent raised through the auction goes to the food bank, Isman said.

He said any donation of over $25 would get a tax receipt.

Isman said the food bank buys its food from manufacturers and wholesalers wherever possible, so a donation of $1 can buy $3 worth of food.