Staying paws-itive
28th annual Pet Alliance fundraiser meets $150K goal
On a Saturday morning that rained neither cats nor dogs, thousands of precious pooches joined by their humans packed Lake Eola Park for the 28th annual Paws In The Park Festival.
The Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando, which began the festival in 1994 as a parade that later turned into a dog-loving extravaganza in the park, expects to meet its planned $150,000 fundraising goal. As of Saturday afternoon, a little over $147,000 in donations was raised, but the final tally from proceeds at the festival won’t be available until weeks later.
Many who participated in the festival — from the dozens of costumed pups hunting to be “best in show” to visitors of the event’s adoption stations — have attended for years. Stephanie and Jared Arnett said they’ve been coming since it began, taking part in the fundraiser as part of Disney VoluntEARS, which gives cast members, their friends and family a chance to give back to the community.
The Arnetts were joined by Phantom, their 8-year-old border collie mix rescue they adopted from Pet Alliance when he was 12 weeks old.
“Honestly he picked us,” Stephanie Arnett said. “He fell asleep in my arms and crawled into my husband’s lap and nudged a bigger dog out of his lap and claimed us.”
Disney VoluntEARS has participated in the fundraiser for years. Typically a contender for “top fundraising team,” it has won that title for 13 out of the last 15 years.
This year, the program raised over $12,000 in donations.
“It’s one of the many causes we are part of in the community,” said Raevon Redding, a Walt Disney World ambassador accompanied by Pepper, a 2-year-old former racing greyhound he adopted about a year ago.
“Our cast members live and play and work here, so it’s really important for us to create an environment for our cast members to enjoy. What better way to enjoy that than with our furry companions?”
This year’s Paws In The Park comes months after most of Pet Alliance’s facility in Orlando caught fire, killing 17 cats. The surviving felines and dogs were taken to the organization’s Sanford location, and it later was set to open a temporary shelter in downtown Orlando.
Pet Alliance was almost immediately met with community support, as donations of pet food and supplies overwhelmed its storage space nearly a week after the devastating blaze. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were also raised to help support the charity, including in a fundraiser hosted at Wall Street Plaza downtown.
“There’s really no words for it’“said Amanda Henry, Pet Alliance’s special events manager. “We didn’t realize how vital we were to the community until everyone’s been coming together . ... It was very hard, but I think we are stronger now than we have been.”
Despite the devastating blaze, Pet Alliance in 2021 found homes for 5,581 cats and dogs and treated nearly 28,000 animals through their low-cost veterinary clinics. The new facility, slated to be built near the original, is hoped to be completed in 2023.
“The love that we have for our pets is unconditional love,” Stephanie Arnett said. “Just as the firefighters ran in to save those pets, we would all do the same for our pets.”