American Brittany Rescue Gears Up For Summer Online Auction
All funds raised from auction will benefit he Senior Brittany Retreat
CENTREVILLE, MD—On July 1, 2008, American Brittany Rescue, Inc. (ABR) began a month-long online auction to raise funds for the Senior Brittany Retreat, in an effort to make sure more senior aged Brittanys are saved. This program will have a physical location where senior Brittanys can come when there is no available foster space for them.
The online auction can be found at http://abrescue.cmarket.com.
Categories for the auction items include art, books, clothing, collectibles, health/beauty, home, lawn/garden, pets, tickets, travel, and get-aways. Currently, donations have been received include two reserved seat tickets to the 133rd Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, donated by David Frei, best selling author and television personality (www.davidfrei.com); a two night stay at the Hotel Marlowe in downtown Boston (www.hotelmarloweboston.com); a five or six day cruise from Carnival Cruises (www.carnival.com); and two round trip coach class airfares from AirTran Airways (www.airtran.com). Collectibles available for bidding include autographed items from country music singer Alan Jackson, country music group Rascal Flatts, NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip, actress Jane Fonda, as well as authors Janet Evanovich, Catherine Coulter and Dean Koontz. Other companies have also donated as well, such as Dogswell (www.dogswell.com); PartyLite (www.partylite.us); Arbonne International (www.arbonne.com/international.asp); and Thompson & Morgan (www.thompson-morgan.com/).
ABR volunteers across the United States have been working for months to collect donated items to put up for auction. Items can still be donated to ABR for the auction.
Anyone interested in being an auction sponsor, or has items to donate to the auction, can still do so. The auction closes July 31, 2008 at 10 PM EDT. The auction site is being powered by BiddingForGood.com and cMarket, Inc. BiddingForGood.com is a community that brings together cause-conscious consumers and organizations looking to raise funds to support their missions. As the leader in online auction fundraising services, cMarket has run over 4,000 auctions and has raised more than $44 million for schools and nonprofit organizations.
ABR currently is able to save many senior aged Brittanys every year, but more are lost because homes are not available. In 2007, more than 1,000 Brittanys were helped by more than 800 ABR volunteers across the United States. Of those dogs, 67 Brittanys between the ages of 8 and 14 years of age found new homes. Sometimes, the ages of these senior Brittanys can make them harder to place in forever homes. To date, more than 17,000 Brittanys have been helped ABR since it’s creation in 1991.
The Retreat will be a multi-use center able to house up to 20 Brittanys and will include training areas, meeting rooms and recreational grounds. ABR wants the center to facilitate community activities and different dog club / rescue activities. The intention is that income from use of these portions of the
facility will help defray the costs of caring for the senior dogs and upkeep of the Senior Retreat, making the facility self sufficient. Some will still be available for forever homes, while other will spend their remaining days at the retreat.
By mid-June, approximately $16,000 has been donated for the Senior Brittany Retreat. For more information about the Retreat, please contact Terry Mixdorf, ABR Chair of the Dream Team, at terrymixdorf@gmail.com. For pictures of the proposed facility, please contact Rhonda Carlson, ABR President, at rhondacarlson@copycentral.com.
