A great sign that something is sorely needed is when it begins to receive donations before any official fundraising has kicked off.
That’s the case for the Chatham-Kent Animal Shelter. Community support is well underway, even though the fundraising effort is still in the planning stage.
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The shelter’s co-chairs, ex municipal councillors Art Stirling and Marjorie Crew, couldn’t be happier.
To date, they’ve received a couple of $25,000 private donations, as well as a $3,000 helping from the Pet and Wildlife Rescue, the proceeds from an online auction.
The donations keep coming, whether via online or from fundraising events such as what PAWR recently held.
While off to a hot start even before their fundraising feet touch the ground, Stirling and Crew know they still have a long way to go, as they have a $2 million target to build a nearly 6,500 square-foot shelter to replace the cramped OSPCA shelter that sits on Park Avenue East.
Still, when something is badly needed in Chatham-Kent – and a new animal shelter certainly qualifies – this community rallies en masse. Just look at the Chatham-Kent Hospice, which is well under construction behind St. Andrew’s Residence. Hospice volunteers were told by so-called experts there was no way they could raise $5 million in a short time period. It would take years. Instead, 640 days after a committee first sat down to talk about building a hospice in Chatham-Kent, construction began, and more than $5.7 million was raised.
The doors are slated to open by the end of this year.
The hospice was badly needed to help provide end-of-life care in our municipality; local citizens, groups, and businesses stepped up big time.
This time around, a new animal shelter is in dire need; expect a similar groundswell of support. In fact, it’s already begun, ahead of official fundraising.
Most animal lovers in Chatham-Kent – and pretty much anyone else driving by the OSPCA’s aging building – know we need a new shelter.
Crew and Stirling will roll out the fundraising plan later this year to get the ball truly rolling. But a few animal lovers are playing fetch with that same ball already.
