By MATT PIKE
The St. Joseph Friends of the Animal Shelter are gearing up for one of their largest fundraisers of the year next weekend.
Melanie Barnes with Friends says Raise Your Paws for the Cause is the second longest running fundraiser for the organization, and is the second largest event hosted by the organization
“From a gathering and planning perspective it is one of the top three fundraisers that we do as well, so it is up there on a pretty significant fundraising opportunity for us,” Barnes says on the KFEQmunnity show. “It’s a well-organized event, it is meant to be open for everyone, so from a cost perspective or from an involvement perspective, we want anyone who wants to be able to come and support the animal shelter we want them to be able to do that.”
Barnes says the event is a dinner and an auction, but this year the organization is offering something different
“You can buy both the dinner and the auction and that is for $65, or if you don’t want to go for the dinner and you just want to go for the auction to spend money and raise money for pets, or if you like that competitive spirit of raising the paddle or bidding on things, getting into that competition and winning items, you can go for just the auction at $20 a piece,” Barnes explains.
“So, there’s two options this year, I think it will hopefully be a good way for many, many more people to get involved.”
The event will be held on February 14th at the Stoney Creek Hotel and Conference Center from 6 to 9 pm.
Barnes says all the money raised during the event goes to help with the efforts that Friends of the Animal Shelter provides
“Money goes directly towards medical fees, enrichment items, things purchased for the shelter down there, as well as adoption fees,” Barnes says. “I’ve preached enough that anytime we run those adoption fees, the Friends of the Animal Shelter is making up that monetary difference for the Animal Control essentially, the city does not just reduce adoption fees.”
You can visit Friend of the Animal Shelters website by clicking HERE and going to the events tab.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.