By WHITNEE ICE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph's Animal Shelter has been awarded a 1 million dollar grant from the City Council for the purchase and renovations of the new animal shelter.
Friends of the Animal Shelter President Whitney Zoghby says the shelter has been fundraising since 2015 and heavily fundraising for the last few years.
"We are approved to receive 1 million dollars in the CIP funds. That will be dispursed in the 2022-2023 fiscal year," Zoghby tells St. Joseph Post. "They asked us to raise 1.5 million in order to receive that 1 million for a total of 2.5 million that we estimated for the purchase of the Corporate Drive building and renovation to become the new animal shelter."
Zoghby says the 2.5 million Dollars was the original estimated cost of the project however, it looks like renovations might cost even more now.
"Obviously over the last few years inflation happens, COVID happened, so construction materials are especially expensive right now, so we are looking to continue fundraising," says Zoghby.
Zoghby says the shelter will not be able to use the grant money immediately.
"As much as I'd love to have the CIP money now, the 2022-23 cycle actually works out nicely to allow us to continue fundraising for the next year or so so that we can ensure that we have enough funds to cover renovations," says Zoghby.
The shelter will continue fundraising for the next year or two waiting for the shelter to receive the grant in the 2022/2023 fiscal year.
Also, sign-up for the Friends of the Animal Shelters' 7th Annual "Run/Walk for the Paws 5K" is available now.
This 3.1-mile race is set for Saturday, April 17th at 2500 Southwest Parkway in St. Joseph.
Zoghby notes that this is in fact a walk.
"Typically people that participate in 5Ks are pretty competitive like to run however, a majority of the people that participate in this one do walk they're joining the race because they care about our cause and it's really the only dog encouraging race in St. Joe," says Zoghby.
Your dogs are encouraged to join you as long as they are friendly with other dogs and up to date on their rabies vaccination. There are typically over 100 dogs that participate in the race.
Registration is 30 dollars and ends April 16th however, sign-up by Saturday for a swag bag and a registration fee of 25 dollars.