A Fundraiser

This is a picture of my husband with me. He keeps me grounded!

This is a picture of me re-fueling after running the 5k in an astonishing 28:10!

This is a picture of Lizzie and me. She is the Prez. of OpSpot and my dear friend!

These are runners and other folks hanging out after the race, talking dog stuff and just enjoying the day!

What a busy, busy weekend! Sunday, we held the 9th Annual Sweat-4-Pets benefiting OpSpot.org and its mission to decrease the number of unwanted pets being euthanized in area shelters by providing low-cost spays and neuters for families needing financial assistance. To date, OpSpot has helped spay and neuter over 23,000 pets. My husband was there to help me--that is him in the shot above. He was my savior for this. His company also generously helped sponsor this event--we could not have done this without them! How did this start? With a sad heart, I had had enough of volunteering in shelters. I really could no longer stand to see the number of animals that were never adopted being euthanized. I ended up taking home dogs to "foster" only to not foster, but to keep in our family. At the time, the Susan G. Komen race was growing larger and larger. I knew the running community was also a large animal-loving community. I approached OpSpot with the idea of this as a fundraiser. At the time, OpSpot was one of the only organizations providing low-cost spays and neuters in the area. The president and I met, she had faith in me and this idea (Lizzie is an amazing woman). However, we had to find help with money--funding this entails money for t-shirts, money to pay for the timing of the race, renting of the park, advertising and food and volunteers and a few other expenses. We started out our first year with a generous donation from an individual who also believed in this as a fundraiser. But in year one, we only had about 40 participants--sort of a disappointment. But I promised that if they stuck with this, we would grow--but it had to be a ten year commitment. Lizzie had faith in me. . . and here we are today, next year is our tenth year. It has been an amazing ride!

Yesterday was, to say the least, a beautiful day for a 5k, 10k Run and 1 Mile Fun Walk! It's November in St. Louis, and I had to wear sunscreen! Unbelievable!

We had nearly 300 participants! We had over 30 volunteers! It was our largest gathering to date! Dogs, children, runners, walkers---it was a blast. We had our town's local NBC affiliate morning show host lead the walk, Jennifer Blome who has helped us every single year--we cannot thank her enough. We had music from our favorite local DJ, Rick Sanbourn from KHITS 96.3 on hand to be our award announcer and rock music provider! We even had a Fox 2 News personality join us for the walk--we had a great time! We had delicious vegan breakfast food provided by my favorite, Match Meats with Match CEO, Allison Burgess on hand personally preparing and giving out her signature product on donated Nature's Own English Muffins.

We had The Running Center guys to help time the race--they did an awesome job! All of the volunteers were amazing!

I will get back to posting my vegan food stuffs later. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I am still recovering right now. I did participate in the 5k run and I made first place in my age group. Honestly, all I can say is that this was truly an anomaly and probably owed to the insanely large amount of adrenaline chasing through my veins! I can say in all honesty that the folks in St. Louis are probably some of the most generous and kind animal people you will meet anywhere!