Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Collinsville kids organize fundraiser for pet shelter

Megan Daugherty is a 9-year-old who wants to "save animals lives." And, with the help of her stepbrother, Brendyn Daugherty, 13, they are accomplishing just that.

Megan and Brendyn, of Collinsville, have put together the Howl-O-Ween Pet Party in the Park on Saturday to benefit Partners For Pets in Troy.

Megan, who wants to become a veterinarian when she grows up, became a vegetarian when she was 7.

"When I was eating meat it made me feel guilty, because animals deserve to live just like us," she said.

The Daugherty family began working with Partners For Pets when they decided there was room in their family for another rescue dog.

"We found Sasha, a poodle, from Partners," said Jennifer Daugherty, who is Megan's mom.

Partners For Pets is a nonprofit, no-kill, animal shelter based in Troy. The pets are shown at PetSmart in Edwardsville, and the PetSmart in Florissant, Mo.

"Partners doesn't take in strays, they find the animals from kill shelters, especially ones that are injured or sick, because they just aren't attractive to people when they come in," Jennifer Daugherty said. "Partners gives them a second chance at life."

Brendyn, who wants to join the Air Force to help out his country, said that he likes animals a lot, but did not know about the organization until his sister started to work with them, "and then I started to help out a lot," he said.

After that, Megan and her brother Brendyn held their first annual Bike-A-Thon to raise money for Partners For Pets and get animals adopted.

Brendyn and Megan started the Bike-A-Thon from their house in Collinsville and rode down the Madison County Trail. The bikers rode to Culver's, who donated ice cream to the riders, Jennifer Daugherty said.

"While we were at Culver's we raised money for Partners for Pets, and tried to get animals adopted. We raised $1,300," Megan said.

After their first event was a success, they decided to begin work on another.

The Howl-O-Ween Pet Party in the Park fundraiser for homeless pets, which they hope to make an annual event, started off as the simple idea of a pet costume contest.

"We just wanted to get a bunch of animals adopted, and since Halloween was coming, we decided to do it for that reason. We wanted to raise money for Partners to get all the stuff we need to keep them (the animals) alive," Megan said.

From the costume contest, it began to escalate into a much larger scale event.

Jennifer said they wanted to involve the community, and local businesses to help the economy. There will be 42 vendors at the event.

"We are going to have a whole bunch of vendors that are going to be selling stuff, and a parade with the adoptable dogs so the people can see all of them if they want to adopt them," Brendyn said.

Megan called the Rams Cheerleaders to see if they would come to sign autographs, they agreed. Randy Grim, founder of Stray Rescue in St. Louis and author of "Don't Dump the Dog," also agreed to come and do a book signing.

Madison County Sheriff's Department will provide a K-9 Demonstration, Horseshoe Lake Animal Hospital Vaccination Clinic will be there providing vaccinations and dog training will be available.

There also will be a pet tricks contest, Illinois State Police seat belt safety demonstration, music by Cool Cats Entertainment and a martial arts demonstration (which will be done by Brendyn, Megan and HTA Martial Arts).

Megan and Brendyn do not plan to stop after this event.

"We are gonna try to do a bake sale," Megan said.

Brendyn said, "We're thinking about a yard sale to raise some money, and we are also gonna do the second annual Bike-A-Thon."

"We just have so many people that seem to open up their hearts when they find out kids are behind it. They are so amazed when they find out a 9- and 13-year-old are working so hard, it's really a great thing," Jennifer said.

The Howl-O-Ween Pet Party in the Park will be held Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Troy Tri-Township Park, 409 Collinsville Road.

For more information call: 616-3332. All proceeds will benefit homeless animals and Partners For Pets.