Backers of a local nonprofit’s plan to turn the old Evergreen Community Center on A Street Southeast into an animal shelter and run it say last Sunday’s successful open house put to rest any doubts about the community’s willingness to support the project.
Where the members of the Auburn Valley Humane Society, founded by a group of seven local veterinarians and members of the community, had hoped to secure 20 of 200 available $1,000 charter memberships, they got 30.
That gives AVHS a powerful push toward its goal of raising enough money to meet a critical target in the contract with the City of Auburn.
Because the AVHS took on in the contract with the City the goal of providing by donation the equipment needed and the furnishings for the building, the initial estimate is it will need to raise about $200,000. The charter memberships allow people to get in on the ground floor and forever be remembered as the community members and groups that were part of the shelter’s opening.
The City will provide animal control services.
“The attendance and the excitement and the public involvement were beyond expectations,” said Auburn City Councilman John Partridge, liaison to the Auburn Valley Humane Society’s Board of Directors. “By 1:15 p.m., it was standing-room only in that building, and it stayed that way almost until 4 p.m.”
The 1-3 p.m. open house offered a live band, hot dogs donated by Lakeland Hills Top Food & Drug and cooked up by Valley Firefighters local 1352, a carriage ride for kids and milling, tail wagging representatives of the doggie set. People also came to get a look at the future shelter before Donavan Bros begins to remold following plans drawn up by local architect Alan Keimig.
Hot dog sales raised another $2,000. A group of seniors at the River Mobile Home Estates finished a quilt, and the raffle for it raised more than $1,000.
The shelter also will serve as a community education center where pets and people can come together, offering pet-related seminars from local veterinarians and staff with topics ranging from grooming to diabetes, plus weekend dog-walking events, kitty-calming visits, service dog information and pet-related events.
“I think the rollout verified what (the AVHS) believed to be true: that this is something that will reach across Auburn,” Partridge said. “I think more people would have been there if they could have gotten in the building. Some people had to be turned away because there wasn’t room.”
More fundraisers will follow. The shelter has to be up, furnished and ready for action by Jan. 1, 2013, when the City’s current animal services contract with King County expires.
People can donate in several ways. Individuals or groups can write a $1,000 check. AVHS also can take monthly payments of $100 a month for 10 months, or $50 for 20 months to secure a corporate membership.
