Belmont County Animal Shelter set to host fundraiser
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - The Belmont County Animal Shelter will be hosting an online fundraiser on Oct. 6 to help pay for its new location.
The fundraiser will be taking place on Jordan's Way's Facebook page.
Jordan's Way is a traveling organization with the goal of helping underfunded shelters across the country raise money. The organization hosts live fundraising events through its Facebook page that raises money in real time and increases adoption visibility.
"Our mission is to fund the underfunded and give overlooked dogs a voice," as stated on Jordan's Way's website.
"We can’t wait until we break ground here. Hopefully they’ll break ground around November but who knows with weather and things like that," Belmont County dog warden Lisa Duvall said. She added that the current shelter's building is in bad shape.
"It would cost more to fix this than it would to build new ones," Duvall said.
The project will cost roughly $6 million to complete. Belmont County commissioner Jerry Echemann previously said that the project will be funded through a mix of grant and county funds to complete the project.
"Everybody’s excited. It’ll be easier and less stressful for the animals. And that’ll be less stressful for us because we’ll have more room," Duvall said. "It won’t be so loud, we'll have pods of dogs, not one kennel that they're all thrown in."
She added that the new pods will reduce the noise and energy from the animals.
"We know that’ll help out the dogs tremendously. And the cats will have a cat room where they can go in and out of," Duvall said.
She added that the cats are currently in the cat room all of the time due to needing more space for the dogs in the shelter.
Duvall said that the shelter will be taking over 10 animals to Canada because the shelter is currently too full.
The fundraiser on Oct. 6 will see the shelter's staff compete in various games and activities on the livestream as viewers donate money.
Duvall said that one of the staff will receive a peanut butter facial, a dog will eat whipped cream off one of the members forehead, and various other wacky stunts and games will occur.
She added that the goal for the fundraiser is to raise $15,000 to help with the new shelter.
Jordan's Way will receive 30% of the donations with the shelter receiving 70%.
Duvall said that the 30% is how the organization is able to stay traveling and assisting underserved communities.
With nearly one million followers on Facebook Jordan’s Way’s website states that it has served over 500 animal shelters, raised over $14 million, and is directly responsible for 80,000 adoptions.
“Jordan's Way is dedicated to sharing meaningful animal welfare stories that inspire people to adopt. Our efforts are publicized on social media to influence the clearing of Shelters. Through our community outreach and advocacy, we create a buzz around shelters that builds a compassionate community of pet parents willing to provide a permanent home. Any donation made goes directly to funding our next shelter visit or to shelters in need,” as stated on the organization’s website.