Wet weather doesn’t dampen a ‘Dog Gone Good Time’

There was potential for disaster at the Humane Society of York County’s recent sixth annual Dog Gone Good Time Festival at Walter Elisha Park.

Clouds and drizzle blanketed the area during the Sept. 26 fundraiser. Luckily, event organizer and emcee Mary Beth Knapp said the stars of the festival don’t usually mind a little rain.

“This is really dog weather, they love it!” she said.

Families and dogs of all shapes and sizes braved the soggy park in order to strut their stuff and visit dozens of vendors, sponsors and rescue organizations. One of the largest four-legged festival participants was Maggie the 4-year-old Great Dane.

Tega Cay residents Rich and Jessica Miera said she came to live with them from a rescue and has since turned into a 130-pound couch potato. They said it would have taken more than a little rain to keep them away from the fun.

“Dog lovers will brave anything for our babies,” Jessica Miera said.

It was that thinking that Knapp was hopeful for when she woke up to rain that morning.

“We didn’t think that anyone would show up, but our vendors showed up, our dog owners showed up,” she said.

During the event, Humane Society staff and volunteers ran raffles, a T-shirt stand and even a dunking booth to help boost profits. This year, after expenses, Knapp estimates the shelter brought in a profit of approximately $16,500. Even though the weather was less than ideal this year, the total is still up several hundred dollars from the 2014 festival.

All signs indicate it’s growing larger each year.

The festival is one of the nonprofit organization’s largest annual fundraisers. The main goal this year was to collect money to help boost the society’s medical fund. The no-kill shelter is taking in more special needs medical cases than ever before, thanks to a change in leadership. Rebecca Boronat was named director this year. Since then, there’s been a significant increase in the number of heartworm positive and other special needs animals that have been accepted at the shelter.

Before, these animals would be turned away because of a lack of funding. Now under Boronat’s leadership, the shelter is taking in the specialty cases and finding new ways to raise the funds.

Another component of the festival is animal adoption. All the adoptable dogs at the Humane Society were on site as well as dogs from several local rescue organizations, such as the Fort Mill-based Ruff Life Animal Rescue. Founder Kristen Marris said such events as the Dog Gone Good Times Festival are really great because they give her adoptable dogs a chance to meet a lot of potential new families.

“An event like this gives us the opportunity to be exposed to so many new people, there’s businesses here that bring their friends, there are other rescues here so we get to know them,” she said.

Marris, whose rescue is coming up on its third anniversary, said making connections among the rescue organizations is critically important, but it’s not about competing with other rescues.

It’s about building a community.

“We had a big supply of adult food and we normally help younger dogs,” she explained, “There was a rescue in Chester that needed food desperately so I went and brought a carload of food to them.”

That’s why the Dog Gone Good Time Festival’s success is so crucial. It brings together dog lovers and ultimately helps save the lives of animals, whether they be at the Humane Society of York County or any number of other local rescues.

“We definitely help each other out as much as we can because it’s all about the dogs,” Marris said.

“It’s not about the people at all.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2015 at 7:08 PM with the headline "Wet weather doesn’t dampen a ‘Dog Gone Good Time’."