By Jeff Dennis
The annual Friends of Colleton County Animal Shelter (FoCCAS) Volunteer Dinner and Celebration was held on August 3rd at Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church Fellowship Hall in Walterboro, where staff from the Colleton County Animal Shelter and the FoCCAS leadership group thanked volunteers who have come to the aid of the animals in the local shelter.
The event featured a meal and a uniform thank you to all participants, including a large door prize raffle of pet-themed products.
FoCCAS volunteers Billie Clark, Linda Lamb and Martha Johnson were at the welcome table providing name tags for everyone in attendance. After a blessing, a catered meal was the first order of business. Farm Little Food Services not only cooked the food, but they donated their efforts as a way to contribute to FoCCAS.
Volunteers enjoyed the table decorations from Heather Lynne Designs consisting of a succulent plant with a cat or dog silhouette accent in each one, along with festive dog paw balloons.
The Colleton County Animal Shelter is led by Director Laura Clark, and she addressed the volunteers after supper. “I started out as a volunteer for FoCCAS, and worked my way up to Shelter Director,” said Clark. “Our fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30 so we are compiling the latest statistics and data presently. I am glad to share that we have achieved a long-term goal of being listed as a ‘No Kill’ facility, which requires a 90-percent or better rescue rate. We finished the last year at 91-percent, a distinction that we worked harder than past years, because we took in 20-percent more animals this past year.”
Clark introduced all of her county employees, which includes those working the mosquito abatement agenda, which is especially in focus during a wet summer like this year. One employee is Shelley Thomas, the Adoption and Rescue Coordinator at the animal shelter.
“My unofficial title is the Animal Getter Outer,” jokes Thomas. “Which means that I identify any special needs of a certain breed animal, and current health status, and then go to work to find a place for them. For example, earlier this year we had a Great Pyrenes found abandoned and it came to the shelter. This breed is very popular, but they need room to roam, and we found someone with property in Bamberg to take that dog.”
Longtime board member Audra Hudson addressed the crowd next.
“I started out by fostering animals in my home before joining FoCCAS and now I’ve been on the board for six years,” said Hudson. “We are here tonight again this year because of all you do to help out. We simply couldn’t do it with you so Thank You. We are grateful to City Council and County Council for their continued support and also to the Church for letting us have monthly meetings here in their Fellowship Hall.
“Our next FoCCAS fundraising event is the Walk and Wag Dog Show coming up on October 9,” said Hudson. “The parking lot at the Discovery Center in downtown Walterboro will be the center of the action and we are hoping for another great turnout this year. A new project we just started is a sponsorship opportunity located at the Animal Shelter.
“Everyone has a favorite animal, whether it is cats, dogs, horses, etc. and now they can donate money towards a particular facility and we will create signage to hang with the sponsor’s name on it. For example, someone could sponsor the fenced-in dog walk area, where volunteers take the dogs every day.”
Anyone can visit the Friends of Colleton County Animal Shelter page on Facebook. Right now, the FoCCAS page is sharing that the shelter is in urgent need of wet and dry puppy food as well as dry kitten food. Donations can be shipped to or dropped off at 33 Poor Farm Road in Walterboro. Links to their wish lists at the Amazon and Chewy websites are also available there.
