Walk For Paws Pet Costume Parade A Success
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
The Chautauqua County Humane Society’s Walk For Paws Pet Costume Parade presented by Happy Hounds Hotel and Day Spa was a great success. The parade was held at the Chautauqua Mall on Halloween Day. Nearly $14,000 was raised for the homeless pets that rely on CCHS and nearly 50 dogs took part in the parade. CCHS Relationship Director Brian Papalia said, “COVID created some added challenges to the walk this year, but thanks to the efforts of the management team at the Chautauqua Mall and to the support of our sponsors including Happy Hounds Hotel and Day Spa, Chautauqua Chemicals, Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo PLLC, Greater Chautauqua Federal Credit Union, and UBS Financial services we were able to hold a really fun pet costume parade in a very safe environment. We also want to thank Media One Radio Group for all of the work done to promote the walk and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church for bringing dog biscuits for the participating dogs.”
As in the past the focus of the Walk For Paws is fundraising done on behalf of the pets at the shelter by folks in the community. This year medallions were presented to the top 3 individual fundraisers and trophy’s went to the top 3 fundraising teams. This year’s top fundraising teams were Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Board of Realtors ($1,176.30), CHQ Humane Board ($857.50), and Working For Paws ($257.80). The top 3 fundraising individuals were Keith Warner ($2,200), Reiley Kolstee ($1,000), and Alex Southworth (681.74).
New to the Walk For Paws was the attached adoption event. Papalia said, “In 2019 we had a dog named Brandy that was adopted by an attendee and the walk and that sparked the idea to hold an adoption event as part of the walk. Over the course of the day we saw 7 of the 9 shelter pets that were brought to the mall go home. It was awesome to see all of the folks come together in support of the pets at the shelter and then to combine that with the notion of that many pets finding new homes as part of the Walk For Paws experience. Simply put, it was a great day.”