Barktober Fest Bake Sale!

Susie Schneider our amazing team captain of Kribbit's Kritters and Lollypop Farm Pet Peeves volunteer held a bake sale at her office complex. All of the funds from the bake sale went towards our Barktober Fest goal. The sale was a great success and raised $274! Way more than we could have anticipated. Michelle's Cafe was nice enough to help out and donate $100 towards that total!

Kribbit's Kritters Garage Sale Success!

Our garage sale was a great success! We only had it one day and we made about $400. Next year we hope to be more organized and raise even more money. Thank you to all of the people that donated items to sell. All left over items were donated to great causes around Rochester including: Lollypop Farm, womens shelters, and GoodWill.

City Solve Urban Race

Today was City Solve Urban Race in Rochester. The Lollypop Young Professionals helped organize run this event. It started off at Murphys Law and thats where me and the young professional volunteers set up our head quarters. This is the 5th time the race has visited Rochester. I was happily surprised at how many people braved the rainy weather today. About 180 people showed up which I think is a pretty good size for Rochester.

One of the best parts of the day was the costume contest!

The Pink Slips - Teachers do it with class!

Where's Waldo

Costume Contest Winners

The Winners! Team Hamburglers



 The participants got the first clue in Murphys Law and then were off to find the first check in point with all of their clues. They had 7 places to find and have their pictures taken in front, they also had to spell out Rochester with their bodies in front of a local land mark and find a teeth whitening product. For bonus points they could bring back Rochester post cards or get one picture with a dog and a cat in it. Team Hamburglers ran the entire way and had the best time by far! I would guess at least 20 minutes.

Me & My Awesome Cazbah Volunteers!

I had an awesome time. I can't think of a more fun way to raise money for nonprofits. Thank you City Solve for choosing Lollypop Farm. I'm already looking forward to volunteering next year.

June 11th Fast and Furriest

The love of my life Bailey was adopted from Rochester Animal Services. Yet I have never participated in this fundraiser. A few years I meant to go but the weather wasn't great and I backed out. This year I definately want to go on the walk to support the shelter that took care of Bailey before he came to live with me. According to their website they take in about 6,000 animals a year. Unfortuneately about 60% of them are humanely euthanized. Last year this event raised $28,000, the goal for this year is $40,000. Thats a big increase in fundraising goal but I hope they can do it!

Collecting Cans for Bfest

Thats what $200 in cans looks like!

Part of the secret to my success last year for Barktober Fest was collecting cans. It sounds ridiculous but it does actually add up. At least $600 of my total last year came from cans. Now I did have a connection and the recycling center that would let me collect cans there but some of just came from my house, friends, and my office. Don't get me wrong returning the cans at times was really gross but people can be more willing to give up their recycling then money sometimes.

I've started early this year collecting cans. Right now its just from a few friends, my office, my moms office and home but it does add up quick. I returned $17 worth of cans the other night. I hope this year to be the #1 Barktober Fest individual fundraiser but the competition is steep!

Lollypop Telethon 2011

The 15th annual Lollypop Farm Telethon is being held this Saturday March 5th at Eastview Mall in Victor! The telethon is one of Lollypop's biggest fundraisers every year. The fundraising goal this year is $208,500 and all of that money stays in our community to help the animals. There will be tails of hope showed staring Timber the dog thrown away in the garbage, who now lives with a loving family.

This year my Barktober Fest team Kribbit's Kritters will have an informational table set up at the Telethon to recruit people for our team. Last year was my first time participating on a BFest team and we were #1! As a team we raised close to $14,000 (to date the most any team has raised!) my personal fundraising contribution was around $2,500. This year we hope to raise even more money for the animals. I was the #3 top fundraiser last year, this year I'm striving for #1!

Frosty Paws Winter Carnival

The Frosty Paws Winter Carnival is an event to raise money for Rochester Animal Services the shelter on Verona st. I adopted my Bailey at this shelter 4 years ago. While it is a much smaller shelter than Lollypop Farm it is still very much needed in our community.

The carnival will be held at Artisan works in Rochester on Saturday January 29th. Entertainment will include magicians, stilt walkers, music, face painting, tarot card readers, and animal psychics! There will also be a live and silent auction.

This is the third year of this event. I have not gone in the past but it sounds too good to pass up. So if your looking for some entertainment in Rochester that weekend be sure to check out this event.

The Animal Rescue Site

One of the easiest ways to give back to the animals and other important charities is by going to http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/. Every day you can go to the site and click the button to donate food to animal shelters. There are also other tabs so you can click to donate for hunger, cancer, child health, literacy, and the rainforest. The site is full of information regarding social issues and campaigns you can sign to show your support to various causes. This is also a fantastic site to purchase really unique hand made products.