The local service organization donated $100 in honour of Capt. Jenn Casey recently, a number they hope will grow exponentially once the rest of the city and beyond get on board.
Casey was the Snowbirds public affairs officer who was killed when her jet crashed into a residential neighbourhood in B.C. last month. Her family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to local Humane Societies.
ANAVETS member Gail Hoffos helped put a different spin on things, though, through personal experience — as a foster for Running Wild’s menagerie of critters, she was well aware of how much help the organization can use.
“They go out to lots of different places and rescue animals, they have rats, they have bunnies, lots of animals they look after and care for,” Hoffos said. “So we decided to donate to them instead of the Humane Society since they’re basically the same thing, saving animals.”
Running Wild celebrated their first anniversary in December and have continued to expand since, growing from taking in dogs and cats to smaller animals like rabbits and guinea pigs and are considering expanding to helping farm animals in the future.
All of Running Wild Rescue’s animals are housed in foster homes, and they work with potential families across Canada to rehome the pets — finding the animals a ride to the proper province however possible.
That kind of effort hasn’t gone unnoticed, and led ANAVETS #252 president Don Purington to issue a challenge to everyone in the city to match their donation, if not more.
“He wanted people to get together and donate to these places, because they’re very vital,” Hoffos said. “If you look on Facebook, they’re always looking for donations because a puppy just came in strangled and things like that. There’s always something.”
Doing so to honour Capt. Casey and her love of animals is the icing on the cake.
“It’s not just a challenge for other charity organizations, it’s for everyone, it’s in memory of Jenn Casey and we’d like to see as many people donate as they can,” Hoffos said.
