LEWISTON — Jonathan LaBonte mocked the surgeon from atop his precarious perch.

“Jacket off, he’s meaning business now,” said the Auburn mayor, wet, wearing a life vest, ready to be re-dunked.

Toss! Toss! Ting! Toss!

LeBonte kept his seat. The doctor asked not to be named — he had just missed three throws and dinged a fourth.

Twelve local celebrities took turns in a dunk tank in one corner of the Androscoggin Business to Business Trade Show at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Thursday to raise money for a cancer documentary. Up and down the otherwise dry aisles, attendees packed the event, often elbow to elbow, between booths for insurance companies, colleges, engineers and promotional products.

Early estimates had attendance passing the 2,500 from last year.

“This is gearing up to be the largest trade show ever,” said Calvin Rinck, spokesman for the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council, the event organizer. “This is where business is happening today.”

He was heartened by who had turned out and how far they’d come, many from around and outside of Androscoggin County.

“If your business has a problem, one of the 165-plus vendors here has an answer,” Rinck said.

Attendees collected balloon animals, carried free tote bags and snacked on finger food such as whoopie pies baked by Labadie’s and handed out by Mechanics Savings Bank. Some even stopped to have their nails done.

Jonnie Clark, the owner of Tiny’s Castle Day Spa in Auburn, decked out her booth in twinkling lights, furry shag rugs and had a stylist dressed as Snow White giving manicures. The business, opened in March, is an all-ages spa-meets-princess tea party with a deep costume closet.

“There’s no other place in the Northeast that has this,” Clark said.

Clark said she’d invested in setting up her company but not so much in marketing. “This is a huge networking opportunity. Every person here is a potential customer.”

Betsy Sibley, marketing director at Community Credit Union, had donned a clown suit for the first time. The night before, several staffers got how-to instructions online and premade a tall box of balloon animals for her to hand out: Swords, dogs, gators. It tied into a “Carnival of Savings” promotion at the credit union.

“We do it for awareness,” Sibley said. “It lets people know who we are, that we’re fun people, just like them.”

Ryan Pelletier, Lewiston branch manager for KeyBank, said he had run into a lot of customers and prospects. Ashley Shawley, relationship manager for the branch and new to the area, said she was using the event as a good way to get to meet people. Their booth was stationed across from the dunk tank.

“Someone made a good point — we should have brought an ATM to put right there,” Shawley said.

The tank, part of the Lewiston Auburn Magazine booths, raised money for the Peloton Project, a documentary on riders biking down from Canada to take part in this fall’s Dempsey Challenge. Among the riders are cancer survivors and caregivers.

“They asked and I said, ‘I bet they can get a lot of money from people paying to dunk me,'” LaBonte said. “I’ve been harassing folks as they go by to drum up more customers.”

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