Following in the footsteps of past groups like 100 Women Who Care and 100 Guys Who Care, as well as, the current 100 People Who Care Brant, a new group has been formed.
100 Pet Lovers Who Care is a community group that will get together three times a year to raise funds for local animal not-for-profit organizations and rescues in the County of Brant, City of Brantford and Six Nation of the Grand River communities.
“There are a lot of amazing people in our community and the surrounding area who spend their time making sure that pets and animals are taken care of and are making a difference,” said Jennifer Middleton, co-chair of 100 Pet Lovers Who Care Brant. “We’re looking for up to 150 people who just love pets and animals and want to make a difference in the rescue and non-for-profit world. The bills for animals are astronomical and we want to be able to alleviate some of that financial stress for these organizations.
Steph Stock, Chair of 100 Pet Lovers Who Care Brant, said she was inspired to create the group after being involved with a similar group in the past.
“Pre-COVID I was a part of 100 Women Who Care, and I just loved the concept and how easy it was for an organization to receive funds without doing any work. I had been asking Shaelyn Osborn if she was going to start it up again because it was such a great thing, and she wasn’t sure, but she said that she would be happy to show me how to run it,” said Stock. “I thought it was an option, but my best friend always reminds me to stick with what I know and one of my businesses is providing in-home nail trimming for pets. I thought, ‘I’m just going to tweak this a little bit more for what I do and my passion.’”
Once the idea was formed, Stock soon began forming a five-person team to help run the group. Herself, Angeli Thompson, Sophie Ashley, Erin McIntyre and Middleton now make up the committee of women who run 100 Pet Lovers Who Care.
Going forward, the group plans to meet once on Wednesday, March 20, again on Wednesday, June 26 and lastly on Wednesday, October 23, 2024. All meetings will take place at 7:00 p.m. at the Rope Factory.
“I have to give a big shout out to Jamie Stephens for offering up the Rope Factory. It’s a beautiful venue with ample space. We’re anticipating that the meetings will be between 30 minutes to an hour, so it’s not much time out of people’s schedules and people can come, enjoy a leisurely drink and grab some poutine, or if they want to, they can just come for the meeting and leave right after.”
During each meeting, members will have an opportunity to submit a nomination for a charity and each nomination will be put into a bucket. Three will be randomly chosen in front of everybody and whoever nominated the chosen charities will have five minutes to explain why they think the funding should go to that organization. Everybody will then vote for one of the three charities and once it’s picked, people can proceed to donate anywhere from $25 and up.
“Members won’t have to attend every meeting if they can’t make it, but as part of the member agreement, everyone will have to donate a minimum of $25 for that chosen organization,” said Middleton.
Stock said that when it comes to animal charities, it could be anywhere from the SPCA to Hearts to Home Feline Rescue, Autism Dog Services, or even Whispering Hearts Horse Rescue.
“Obviously you won’t find a horse rescue in Brantford and Whispering Hearts is out of the region, but the committee spoke, and we don’t mind if it’s a specialty rescue located in the outskirts of town like that,” said Stock. “Otherwise, there’s so many pet rescue organizations here in town and we’ll do three a year. Hopefully after three or four years we’ll kind of keep rotating because once a name is pulled, the name will be pulled out of rotation for the year.”
Since announcing the new group on January 25, 2024, 91 people have already joined the 100 Pet Lovers Who Group and the co-chairs are looking forward to reaching their cap of 150 by the end of the year.
“It’s just giving people who absolutely love pets, a chance to be able to help out knowing it’s going to a good cause without breaking the bank,” said Stock. “It’s not about saying ‘look at us!’ This is here because we want to help these organizations with no strings attached. We want them to take the money and use it for pets and what they need.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
