Good Morning Everyone!
I wanted to share a new program/club I launched at our shelter in April 2023. It's dubbed "Prairie Trotters - A Wellness Club". It's a walking, jogging, running club with our dogs from our facility. People actually PAY us to walk our dogs. Crazy right? But it's been awesome. Everyone who has joined LOVES the program. We mapped out 3 trails all starting from our shelter. Green, Blue & Red. 1 mile, 1.5 miles and 2.2 miles. Then we tagged in our Streets Department (we are a municipal shelter) to paint paw prints on the sidewalks for each trail so even if they forget their maps, they can just follow the color trail they want along the sidewalk! It's a onetime fee, $10 or $40. The lower fee they get a PT tshirt to wear when they are walking, $40 includes the tee, a backpack, chapstick, sunglasses, dog water bowl, people water bottle, and 50% any PT events (like our first 5k9 (dog friendly 5k) we did this past Nov).
It does take a lot of help from our shelter staff/animal care techs in getting them set up, getting their dogs and switching them out. We have set days/times they can participate in this program, and the hours change on the season since we are in Texas. They just shoot me an email for the shifts they want and I add it to our calendar so the team knows when to expect the Trotters and how many.
It's a win/win, it's bringing in some extra donations to the shelter and also getting our dogs much needed additional exercise while also promoting/supporting our community being active and healthy as well.
Just thought I'd share this as it's been a pretty great success so far. We have over 60 members currently.
Our sign-up info is here if anyone wants to take a peek:
https://www.gptx.org/Departments/Animal-Services/Animal-Services-Resources/Prairie-Trotters-Wellness-Club
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out about this!
#FundraisingandDevelopment
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Angellee Vincent
Volunteer & Events Coordinator
Grand Prairie Animal Services
Grand Prairie, TX
www.gptx.org/paws
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