WALK YOUR OWN DOG TO RAISE FUNDS FOR SPCA ANIMALS
Friday, 13 April 2018 21:19
Scott Delucchi, SPCA Executive Director
I sent this email message to the entire SPCA staff two weeks ago:
Next year’s SPCA Wag n’ Walk fundraiser will take place on 4/20. We will invite local marijuana dispensaries to have booths at our event and this will increase the revenue stream from vendors. Once the pot heads are on-board, that will open-up countless opportunities and this is where I need your help to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on ideas. For example, a marijuana vendor might charge $5 per hit for our participants (Puffs for Pups!). Easy money for shelter animals, right? As another idea, we’re looking at having a special Zig Zag agility course just for humans who have taken the most hits. That could be more fun than watching the dogs in their agility area! In fact, we could go all out and rebrand this event as the Wag n’ Weed which would enable us to reach an entirely new audience. Our highly popular event T-shirt could say this on the back: “I inhaled (but my dog did not!) at the SPCA’s Wag n’ Weed.”
Before you report me to the local authorities, please know I sent this April 1. We have to have fun where we can! And, yes, I did fool a few people for at least a few sentences!
Here’s the real deal. Our Wag n’ Walk is Sunday, May 6, 9 am at Custom House Plaza. We will not have marijuana dispensaries on site, but will have other fun activities, including a VIP beer tent with Lagunitas. The main attraction is the walk itself, a leisurely 2.4 mile path along the waterfront. Participants walk their own dogs to raise vital funds for shelter dogs still awaiting their forever homes. The registration fee is $25. Beyond that, we kindly ask participants to do a bit of fundraising. This is a modest goal: collect $10 from a total of 10 friends, co-workers, relatives, neighbors to net another $100 for the shelter animals.
SPCA staff have been setting an inspiring example, taking the fundraising to a new level. SPCA Customer Service Rep, Lexie Aleshire, is relatively new to our staff and involved with her first Wag n’ Walk. She emailed and mailed her friends and family back home in Washington state asking them to help our cause. She also baked, then sold homemade mini pies to her co-workers and friends. Lexie has raised $2,105 and she has three weeks to go!
Local resident Ingrid Watson is another Wag n’ Walk “rookie,” but she’s playing like a veteran. Ingrid is on the leaderboard with an impressive $4,850 raised to date. The spark for Ingrid was seeing our quarterly newsletter at her workplace (her boss’ wife gets the newsletter delivered at home, and he brought it to work). Naturally, our latest issue had a big Wag n’ Walk splash. “I feel animals’ suffering intensely and I’m also tenacious,” Ingrid says. Ingrid and her husband will be walking two of their three dogs, all rescue pups. “Animals reach people in a unique way and have helped me as much as people have.”
Outside of the walk, we’ll have vendor booths, food trucks, an agility course set up in the center of Custom House Plaza for dogs and music provided by DJ Fredo of 101.7 The Beach.
We’d love to have you join the party on May 6 at Custom House Plaza. If you can fundraise a bit and get to the $100 level, you’ll get our coveted event T-shirt and the added satisfaction of knowing you are helping us help shelter animals find homes as good as all of yours.
