On Saturday, July 20th, we'll be participating in
Dog-A-Thon, our Humane Society's walk for homeless pets.
For those of you who are new to the blog, let me tell you, it's a really exciting time of year at the IBKC. We all work very hard raising funds for our shelter, and we have lots of fun doing it.
Each week, there are lots of extra posts and pictures, fun things, and many surprises. You'll see the whole IBKC community rise to support our shelter. You'll witness lots of very kind and generous people in action. You'll cheer when we meet our matching donation challenges. It will make you feel warm and fuzzy and you may cry a few happy tears. You'll see magic happen. Your heart will sing. You will click "refresh" many times.
In the end, we will have raised squillions of dollars to help homeless cats and kittens, and we will walk proudly in the walk.
The first year we participated in the event, we started off with a modest goal of $3000 and when the fundraiser was over, we had raised $23,000. The next year, we upped our goal to $40,000, met that goal with our online donations and when we added in the money collected from our other team members, friends, family, and auctions, we had raised over $48,000 for the shelter! Year three we raised the bar again and set our goal at $50,000 and ended up at over $66,000. Last year was even more incredible, and we ended up raising over $87,000 for the cats and kittens!!
This year, we are raising the bar once again and have set our goal at $100,000. I know that sounds like a tremendous amount, but I have so much faith in our community.
I just know we can do it.
Our Humane Society has done some incredible things with the money we've raised. With our help, they were able to complete the Charlene Butterbean Quarantine room in 2010.
In 2011, we funded the "Petunia Louise Community Cat Room", a large, glass-walled enclosure with climbing trees, privacy boxes, and lots of soft places for cats to sleep. Showcasing the cats in this home-like setting is proving to be very attractive to adopters, and the kitties and cats residing in this room don’t usually stay long!
Just like previous years, event though the event is called "Dog-A-Thon", all of the money we raise will go directly to the cats and kittens. It will help fund the foster program and in-house and off-site adoption programs. It will help make many shelter improvements for the cats. It will buy cats cozy little fleece beds and other comforting items. It will help reduce the cost of spay and neuter surgeries for cats of lower income families. It will also help fund a program at the shelter designed specifically to help elderly pet owners on fixed incomes who can’t afford to feed their beloved companions. It will feed and provide medical care for tiny kittens, adult and senior cats. It will help make life better for our amazing shelter cats, while they wait for their forever families to come along.
This year will be a little different than previous years. We thought we might have a batch of foster kittens to take some calls in our little telethon set this fundraiser, but on many levels, we are not quite ready to bring in another litter. We'll see some foster babies before the season is over, but not before our FUNdraiser ends.
Wylla and Charlene will do their best to handle the call volume - they tell me they are up for the challenge. Of course we don't want them to work TOO hard, they need their naps, so I've arranged for some extra-special guests to take a few calls too. OH, just you wait!
We'll have another print for sale this year which should be a HUGE crowd-pleaser. They'll be at a lower price point this year, smaller in size too, but just as awesome as the print we sold last year. All the profits from the print sales goes right to our campaign.
Of course we'll also be auctioning off the always popular "
Tea with the Bean", your opportunity to have lunch with us at IBKC headquarters. The tea has been a huge success the past three years, so we just have to do it again! Wylla's got a special event planned too! She'll tell you more about that in the weeks to come.
We will have MANY awesome matching donation challenges, thanks to some really generous folks.
We'll have days dedicated to some of your favorite causes - like the senior cat medical fund.
Just you wait, my friends! I've got so much planned for the next month. There's going to be LOTS of fun and surprises - quite possible the funnest FUNdraiser yet!!!
To make a tax-deductible donation to our campaign or learn more about the event, please visit our
First Giving page.
We appreciate ever dollar you give. Every bit helps because when we pool it all together, we can make BIG things happen.
Our shelter has provided us with so many wonderful kittens over the years. These kittens have made us smile, they've brightened many days, they've warmed our hearts. Here's our chance to give something back - we can honor all those itty-bitty kitties and say "thanks" by supporting the organization that gave them their start in life - The Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County.
Thank you, friends. It will be an exciting and emotional month, and I can hardly wait to see how much we can raise and the difference we'll make in the lives of our precious shelter cats and kittens.
100 Squillion! HERE WE COME!!
PS I know that not everyone is in a position to make a donation - you can always help by spreading the word! Tweet, post and link away! It doesn't cost a cent, but it helps tremendously!
And if you want to join the team and raise funds too,
shoot me an email and we'll get you set up!