Lawrence County Humane Society Hosting Annual Homeless to Home Event; Seeking Support for NEW Shelter

Get ready for a “Paw”some event!

The Lawrence County Humane Society will be hosting its annual Homeless to Home Event. Be sure to save the date of Sunday May 5. The event will be held from noon to 5 p.m. at Cascade Park in the Dance Hall.

Lois Winter, President of the Lawrence County Humane Society Board and volunteer says it is going to be one you don’t want to miss.

“I’m really excited for Homeless to Home,” Winter said. “This is our big fundraiser of the year to benefit our medical fund.”

Since 1953, the Lawrence County Humane Society has helped prevent cruelty to animals and provide a safe haven for lost pets and the homeless animals of Lawrence County. They are provided with a comfortable living environment, food, shelter, basic medical evaluations and care, vaccinations, SNAP testing, micro-chipping, spay/neuter procedure and most of all love. The Lawrence County Humane Society staff is dedicated to providing compassionate care to the animals while in their time of need until completing the ultimate goal of placing them into a new forever home.

“I am proud to say we are a no kill shelter, so if we can fix them we do,” Winter said.

The medical fund helps with any extraordinary circumstances such as dental issues, skin issues, emaciation, etc. Recently, a kitten was found with a crushed front leg, a broken jaw, and a chunk of ear missing. The medical fund helped treat the kitten and prepare it for its forever home. Ultimately, she was adopted.

Homeless to Home is a family-friendly event. It’s free to get in, and there will be a DJ. The volunteers will serve up a pasta dinner, which costs $10. There will be tons of raffle baskets (Winter said they had nearly 200 baskets last year), and participants can buy 26 tickets for $10. In addition, there will be a Mega Raffle with larger items and tickets can be purchased for $1 per ticket; a 50/50 raffle; a bake sale; humane society merchandise for sale including homemade dog biscuits; and kids coloring pages.

“We all work really hard to put this off and make money for our medical fund,” Winter said.

And while you are adding Lawrence County Humane Society events to your calendar, be sure to add Saturday April 20, when the Lawrence County Humane Society will be a vendor at the Lawrence County YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day. There will be games for the kids, merchandise, and the event will feature Lawrence County Comfort K9s. Many other community non-profits will also participate. For 31 years, Healthy Kids Day has celebrated kids’ mental and physical health while teaching healthy habits for thousands of families.

The Lawrence County Humane Society is also planning a long-term project that will require a lot of community support. Winter said in the next few years they hope to build a new state of the art facility right around the corner of the current shelter. She said the current facility is more than 70 years old and is beginning to show its age.

“The current shelter is deteriorating,” she said. “We are hoping in next couple years raise 3 to 4 million dollars to build shelter. It’s going to be a challenge, but I think we can do it.”

According to Winter, fundraising activities are vital to the survival and continuation of the Lawrence County Humane Society as the organization survives solely on those events and support from the community. No money funnels down from national organizations.

“Every dime we run on we have to raise somehow,” she said. “Adoption fees only help so much. We hold fundraisers all through the year to make ends meet.”

Winter said that monetary support isn’t the only way to help. The organization is always looking for volunteers.

“We have a nice group of volunteers who come out and walk dogs, help with events, and etc,” she said. “And we are always looking for and welcoming new volunteers. We have an orientation meeting every couple of months.”

To learn more, visit the Lawrence County Humane website here.

Follow the Lawrence County Humane Society on Facebook.