TARPS wins $2,000 in grants

Susan Lampe-Wilson of The Animal Rescue and Protection Society in Chester has announced that the shelter has been awarded theanimalrescue.com’s top prize for Vermont in Rounds 1 and 3 of its Shelter Challenge. TARPS’ shelter has received two grant checks for $1,000 each.

Seannie helped raise votes, which translated into grants, for The Animal Rescue and Protection Society.

The Shelter Challenge is a partnership between The Animal Rescue Site and the Petfinder.com Foundation. Grant money awarded by the organizations totals $300,000 in direct funding to world-wide animal rescue and welfare groups.

TARPS found a unique way to motivate their voters daily to visit the site and vote. They receive an e-mail,or a Facebook posting from one of the shelter’s successfully adopted cats, Seannie, who shares a photo and a comment or two about his day-to-day life. Voters are given the theanimalrescue.com’s Shelter Challenge link and encouraged to remember to vote.

Of the double-win, TARPS President Wendy O’Dette, who is Seannie’s owner, said, “We couldn’t be happier. I am very grateful for our daily voters. We consistently received over 50% of the Vermont vote. I’m sure we couldn’t have achieved that without Seannie’s reminders.”

The funds will be used to pay for pet food and vet care as well as rent and utilities for the shelter, located at 1758 Rt. 103 S.

A complete list of TARPS’ needs can be found at its website here. Currently, some of its larger needs are a clothes washer, a Mac computer and Mac platform with an external hard drive. Lampe-Wilson said the shelter is always in need of paper towels, Dawn dish detergent and wet catfood.

Last year, TARPS was able to place about 125 animals in homes, and it currently is home to 88 cats and kittens.

To vote visit www.theanimalrescuesite.com, and click on the Shelter Challenge tab on the right. To be added to Seannie’s email, visit: http://tarpsanimalsheltervt.org/donate/free-help-info or send your request and e-mail address to shelter@TARPSAnimalShelterVT.org. For a full list of 3rd round winners visit: http://www.greatergood.com/pressroom/PRARSShelterChallenge3Winners.pdf.