Since Best Friends began encouraging its members to hold a “party for purpose,” designed to boost our membership and raise funds for our mission of No More Homeless Pets, we’ve seen several members run with the idea and engage their own creativity and ingenuity in organizing and executing the parties.

This past weekend in Kamloops, British Columbia, a group of 12 women who call themselves the Bow Wow Sisters ran full throttle with the party idea and put together an event that has resulted in a major contribution to Best Friends, a contribution that was as much motivational as it was financial.

The sisters

The Bow Wow Sisters are a group of friends who enjoy training their dogs in agility and taking them to trial events around western Canada.

"We’re not terribly competitive," says Bow Wow sister Claudine Sleik. "We just like to have fun with our dogs, and we always like raising funds for animal welfare and rescue groups." Each year the group throws a fundraiser for a particular group. This year they chose Best Friends.

Initially, Sleik was planning on having the party for a purpose at her house, an event that would allow her to introduce Best Friends to her friends, neighbors and fellow agility enthusiasts. But it soon became clear that many of her intended guests already knew about Best Friends through National Geographic Channel’s "DogTown" series, about the lifesaving work Best Friends does in its dog care area. The interest the party generated became too great for the amount of space at Sleik’s home. So the group moved the event to the local Dick Hart Memorial Park and combined it with a dog agility trial.

Not only did the party draw support from individuals; it also drew sponsorship from local businesses and national pet companies, including Canadian Dog Agility (a manufacturer of agility equipment) and Petcurean Pet Nutrition (producer of high-end pet food). All in all, companies chipped in a total of about $3,000 CAD worth of donated food, drinks, raffle prizes, and items that could be used as incentives for donating to or becoming a member of Best Friends.

"I was really floored by how many sponsors jumped on board," Sleik says.  With so many sponsors, the Bow Wow Sisters were able to donate every bit of the proceeds to Best Friends without having to deduct any expenses. The results were impressive.

Sleik had set a pre-party goal of signing up 25 people for Best Friends memberships and another 25 for animal sponsorships. The party wound up garnering 30 new memberships and 34 sponsorships. In total, the party generated about $2,400 USD in donations to Best Friends.

"It went over much better than I ever anticipated," Sleik says.

Kindness to animals knows no borders

As is the custom, dog handlers met before the agility trials, and some questioned why the Bow Wow Sisters wanted to raise funds for a U.S.-based organization rather than a Canadian one. Once they learned more about Best Friends, the answer to that question became rather evident.

"They understood that kindness to animals isn’t limited by borders,” Sleik says. “And the resources that Best Friends offers are there for all countries to tap into."

After the agility trials, guests received a motivational primer on Best Friends, which included two episodes of "DogTown." Sleik says the atmosphere was so charged, so positively in support of Best Friends, that she couldn’t set up the membership sign-up table soon enough.

"I couldn’t believe how eager people were to get their memberships," she says. “Once we had the membership table set up, people were already lined up.”

The event was so impressively organized and executed that two separate dog agility groups later approached Sleik about her organizing similar events on their behalf. One of them, Just for Fun Agility from Vancouver Island, decided they would hold the very same event next May to benefit Best Friends.

"Probably one of the most rewarding aspects of organizing this party has been the process of introducing people and businesses to Best Friends for the first time,” Sleik says. “When they hear about the kindness extended to animals everywhere, they want to jump on aboard and be part of it."

For Sleik, the event was a way to count down the 12 months she has until her dream of visiting Best Friends comes true, which she’ll be doing for her 40th birthday.

For information on how to host your own party for a purpose, click here.

As part of Best Friends’ 25th anniversary in 2009, our goal is to double our membership, so we can double our efforts to bring about a time when all companion animals have a forever home. What can you do to help? Give the Gift of a Best Friends membership to family and friends.