2008 Wag 'n Walk for the Seal Beach Animal Care Center

Wow, it's been almost a month since I last blogged! I have been involved in a big fundraiser, the Wag 'n Walk, for the Seal Beach Animal Care Center. We put about 3-4 months of planning and brainstorming in effect to get this rolling. Kymberli and I have only been involved in it for two years, but man it is SO worth it.

Last year we raised $15,000+ for the shelter. It was fantastic. This year we want to bury that number and go much higher. I wanted us to break the $20,000 mark. You may wonder how we get there. Let me tell you.

First, we go for our sponsors. This year we had PetSmart and Dogswell as our big sponsors. Then we get donations for our silent auction and raffle and get vendors to reserve a space on the day of the event. We had a great fundraising team this year. We all put in a lot of time and effort and we were able to collect more than 50 raffle items, 9 silent auction items and we had a HUGE super opportunity drawing for an LCD TV, a $500 gift certificate to one of our local malls, a weekend getaway at Tahiti Village in Vegas and a $200 gift certificate to a local restaurant. These were some great prizes!!

The day started off soggy. The morning fog was lingering and the ground was saturated with ocean mist and dampness. In 10 minutes my sneakers were soaked, but I soon forgot about it as there was so much to do. Our team got right to work and it went about as smoothly as it can. It was great!

Long story short, we had a beautiful day. There we over 30 vendors (a big increase from last year), many more people showed to participate in our contests, raffles and auction. We saw all different breeds of dog and best of all, our adoptable animal dog show was a bit hit. Our dogs are so amazing. It's bittersweet sometimes. You fall in love with some of these animals and when they get adopted it's sad for you but so awesome for the dog or cat.

Drumroll please... at the time of this blog we have raised $22,699!!! That's more than $7,000 more than last year and we are still counting! Congrats to the shelter for getting some much needed funds to care for the animals and for our wonderful, dedicated team of volunteers who put this event on. It had it's stressful moments, but I don't think it would be as great as it is without them. We all handled it well (ok, maybe I got testy from time to time) and made this year the best yet!

Here are some of the 'snapshots' I snagged in between selling raffle tickets. It'll give you a little taste of everything that was going on. Enjoy!