If you haven't joined yet, sign up at our First Giving site to raise money for animals at Animal Rescue, Inc. It's a great chance to win some fantastic prizes from local businesses:

First Prize:
Two-night stay at The Mansion House Bed & Breakfast
in Snow Hill, MD. Plus a $50 gift certificate to The Hobbit Restaurant
in Ocean City, MD. Check out their websites respectively here and here.

Mody's reaching out. Wanna reach back?

Second Prize:
A Custom Dinner by Marty Grams prepared in your home for up to
4 people. Choose from 2 menus that include 1 appetizer or salad, 1 entry, 1 side dish, 1 dessert. Chef Marty writes for Food Network, Kraft Kitchens and the Delta Star Newspaper.

Third Prize:

Pastel Painting Gift Certificate by Arts d'Tryon. Look at its website here. 

 

Fourth Prize:
Gift certificate for a one-hour sitting at Country Road Photography. Also includes an 8x10 and 20 negatives and enhancements. Check out its website at here.

To fundraise, visit our First Giving site here. You can send e-mails to family and friends asking them to pledge or start a page of their own! While donors have been generous, we're still a few thousand away from our goal -- every dollar will help animals at Animal Rescue, Inc.

Stacey Helbig (L) and Stacey Levie (R) not only share a name, but a passion coordinating events to help animals find forever homes.

With the inception of our e-newsletter almost one year ago, we hoped to use this forum to give thanks to each of the many volunteers who have been so beneficial to Animal Rescue, Inc.'s survival for over three decades. These special individuals, each one with a tremendous amount of love and respect for animals, give up their precious time and energy to focus on the needs of our sanctuary and our four-legged residents. There's no doubt that our continued existence is due, in part,  because of those passionate individuals who have helped us provide for the needs of each animal in our care.

Dogs' Day in the Park is our biggest fund-raising event of the year. The
amount of work and planning  required to ensure this event is a success
depends solely on someone with the ability to tackle such a daunting task. That courageous individual is Stacey Helbig. Stacey accepted
the challenge of organizing her first fund-raising event for us when it
appeared we would not have the manpower for our annual Christmas
Dinner/Dance/Auction in December 2008. She immediately jumped into this project with both feet running and decided, if she survived that event, she surely could tackle the Dogs' Day in the Park event the following year. Well, the good news is she did survive and even better news is that since 2009, Dogs' Day in the Park has become bigger and better each year since Stacey took the helm.

In addition to her Dogs Day in the Park project, Stacey also attends and
coordinates volunteer coverage at ARI's booth at the MD Pet Expo, the Faerie Festival, Earth Day, Red Lion Days, New Freedom Heritage Days, Woofstock, Shrewsbury Fall Festival, Pictures with Santa, PetSmart Adopt-A-Thons and Paws for the Holidays Dinner/Dance/Auction. Whew! And while we think of Stacey as a modern-day Wonder Woman, she readily admits she couldn't do anything without the wonderful volunteers she's acquired over the years. Her main group of volunteers who are always ready to help are: Anne Marie Revello, Fran Richards, Allison O'Neill, Elaine Joines, Marcia Black and Sandy Harrison, but there are others who volunteer for the events just in their own areas. We still need volunteers for Dogs' Day! If you have a few hours to spare, contact Stacey here to sign up.

There is one additional special woman whose assistance Stacey (and ARI) could not live without. Stacey Levie began volunteering at ARI in March 2008 while she was attending college full-time and working part-time. Stacey began walking dogs and got to know each one individually. She also started doing tours on adoption days where she met Stacey Helbig and their friendship formed. From that moment on, Stacey Levie has been Stacey Helbig's right-hand assistant on each fund-raising project to date, and their dedication to the animals does not stop there. When there are no weekend events scheduled, you can find both Staceys at ARI any Saturday or Sunday brushing dogs and cuddling cats. If you plan on attending Dogs' Day in the Park this year on October 1st, please look for the Staceys and join us in thanking them for all the fun they plan on providing for you and your pets that day. They deserve the recognition and a tremendous amount of thanks for all they give of themselves to help the animals at Animal Rescue, Inc.