By Carli Johnson STAFF WRITER
On Tuesday, July 28, the Big Sky Arts Council Building transformed into a red carpet runway for Big Sky residents to show off their dapper dogs and cats. The event was hosted by Riley’s Urgent Fund for Friends and aimed to raise money for the new animal shelter, scheduled to open in November.
Participants paid a fee to sign up their pet to strut down the runway while emcee Jeremy Harder acknowledged their accolades. Each pet left with themed blue ribbon awards, such as, “World’s Biggest Lap Dog” that was awarded to an 80 pound yellow lab named Bear, or “Chief Cookie Quality Control Officer” that was awarded to Carmen Oakley, a spotted mutt who has an incessant desire for cookies.
“Every animal touches our lives and we wanted to give the community a chance to connect with each other and their animals,” said Stephanie “Dr. Syd” Desmarais in an interview with EBS. “This event is both a fundraiser and a celebration of the last three years of working to get a shelter in Big Sky.”
Proceeds from the fundraiser will go towards programs at the shelter where they can take animals in whether they are lost, stray or abandoned, create adoption and foster programs, kids education programs to teach them about animal safety, fire safety programs to ready families and neighbors with pets in case of wildfire emergencies.
“We’ll finally have a space to help make these programs real,” Desmarais said with a sigh of relief.
