A Benefit for the Transylvania Country Animal Shelter
By Katie Flanagan, Garden Manager
This story begins almost two months ago while the students of The Outdoor Academy were volunteering at the local Mountain Song Music Festival. While visiting the fundraising booth for The Friends of the Transylvania County Animal Shelter (FOTAS), a couple of students started a conversation with Dr. Ann Holshouser, local Veterinarian and Board member of FOTAS. They were immediately inspired to join forces in planning an event to raise money for the cause.
Once the students settled on a plan for the evening, they put their noses to the grindstone, breaking up into small groups to organize everything on their own. They spent over a month creating and posting flyers around town, planning the menu (chili, cornbread, and apple crisp!), organizing the musical entertainment, designing a program for the evening of the event, and practicing for the big night!
Expecting almost 30 guests to attend the event, the students spent all of Friday evening and Saturday afternoon before the event cooking up a storm, rearranging the Sun Lodge, making decorative posters and paw prints, and baking gingerbread “doggie biscuits” in “doggie bags” as treats for the guests to take home.
Daniel and Caroline are prepped and ready to greet the guests!
As the guests began to trickle into the Sun Lodge that evening, the students welcomed them with bright smiles and light conversation. Dr. Ann and the full house of guests were thrilled and pleasantly surprised with all of the hard work and creativity that went into planning and executing this event…and the entertainment had not even begun!
Once the guest’s bellies were full of homemade chili, cornbread, and sweat tea, they headed into the Den for a presentation by Dr. Ann. This presentation allowed her to share in more detail the great need for a new animal shelter in the county. The current shelter is out of date and not able to meet the current needs of stray and abandoned animals in TransylvaniaCounty. The new facility will allow for a more welcoming and happy space, as well create a healthier layout for both the animals and staff working in the facility. For more information on the project please visit: http://animalsheltertc.org/how-you-can-help/
The Semester 33 Musical Revue!
Once the presentation had concluded, the entertainment portion of the evening began! Starting out with a musical number by Forrest and Liz, the evening progressed with poetry by both students and staff, dance and drums with the African drumming class, a couple of instrumental pieces, and finished with two songs sung by the whole group, and some of the guests singing along. The students received a standing ovation and endless accolades from the room full of guests!
Entertaining a full house
While this was a challenging experience for the students, they learned a whole lot about the ups and downs of planning and executing a small-scale fundraiser. We could not be more proud and excited for them! Oh and they also raised over $900 that will go towards building the new Transylvania Country Animal Shelter…well done team!
Breaking cornbread together for a good cause
“The Animal Shelter Benefit was wonderful because, I got to explore restaurant style cooking and present my food to a larger audience. I really got to see the students of my semester step up into a leadership role, which I am eternally grateful for.”
-Sophia
