2013 Adoption Event

On June 8 2013, WARM held its 3rd Adoption Day/Yard Sale/BBQ fundraising event at the Waccamaw Pottery on 501. We were blessed with a beautiful day, after sweating out the progression of a storm moving up the coast. But it cleared out by Friday and we were able to relax and enjoy the anticipation of the event.

The doors opened at 8 am Saturday morning and the people were ready to shop. The adoptable dogs arrived at 10:00 - the dogs enjoyed their day out and had many visitors throughout the day. The BBQ lunch started at 11 am. Many of WARM's previous residents and guardians came to visit and everyone, two-legged and four-legged, seemed to enjoy the day — browsing, visiting and eating.

The day came to an end at 2 pm and the tickets were drawn for the BBQ stub raffle — congratulations to Bobby Kelly, who won the overnight stay at the Charleston Historic Hampton Inn, which included a $200.00 gift card; to Pam Jirak — winning the Kindle Fire Tablet; to Cheryl Todd — winning the $50.00 WalMart Gift Card; to Jack Kelly — winning the Pelican tickets and baseball caps; to Rita Harris — winning golf for 4, with cart, at Diamond Back Golf Club; and to Ronnie Felts — winning admission tickets to Brookgreen Gardens.

The goal for this year's event was to raise about $15,000.00 — the approximate amount needed to replace the dog pens for our large dogs. The present pens have been in use for many years — some 15, others up to 23 years. They are rusting away and coming apart — many of them having been patched over and over again. We didn't quite reach our goal, but we had a great event. The WARM Adoption Day/ Yard Sale started in 2011 and has grown each year — this year we had a 22% increase over last year — netting approximately $12,700.00.

There are so many people to thank for helping make this fundraiser such a success for WARM.

First, thanks to the all the volunteers who helped with this event - who gave so much of their time and worked many, many man hours to make this happen. It takes a large number of volunteers to man this type of event and WARM is very fortunate to have such a dedicated group of volunteers — those that volunteer on a weekly basis and those who we call on for fundraisers and special events — volunteers who care and are committed to the welfare of rescued animals. Each and every volunteer is very important to WARM in whatever capacity they serve — the time that they give and the expense they incur in doing so. Thank you WARM volunteers for making this day happen — you are all truly appreciated.

We would like to thank the Waccamaw Center for allowing us to hold our fundraiser on their property. It was a great location - we had a huge area to display all of the yard sale items with plenty of room to spare for our Bake Sale and BBQ and a nice covered area for our adoptable dogs — easy access to the property and plenty of parking. Martin Durham was a pleasure to work with and was certainly very accommodating to our needs. Many, many thanks to the Waccamaw Center.

Thanks to our local community that really stepped up to support this event. The donations poured in for the yard sale — as we approached the date of the event, we finally had to refuse any more merchandise. Then the day of the sale — the community again was there to support this event. We were very busy throughout the day on Saturday and there was a good crowd the few hours that we were open on Sunday afternoon. To everyone who made donations to the yard sale and to those who attended the event — thanks for helping make this such a successful fundraiser for WARM.

Thanks to the people who could not attend but sent in donations to support the event.

Thanks to all the news media — newspapers (the Sun News, Myrtle Beach Herald, Horry Independent, and Carolina Forest News); radio stations (Easy Radio, Diane at Six); TV stations (WPDE, WBTW, WMBF, WFXB and HTC); and magazines (SC Women's Magazine, Sasee, Grand Strand Magazine) that made announcements and helped spread the word leading up to the event, and to those who attended the event for news coverage and reporting. We had wide coverage this year by all the mediums — thanks to all of you who were so instrumental to this event's success.

Thanks to Mike and Billie at Smokin' Pitt Bar-B-Q for cooking the BBQ for this event — even though they had another event scheduled the same day — they worked it out so they could cook for us too, and thanks to Timmy from Pully Bones for being with us and serving up our delicious lunch, which consisted of BBQ, bun, slaw, baked beans and homemade potato chips.

Thanks to DHR Signs, who has been providing road signs and banners for WARM's fundraisers for many years. Thanks for always supporting our events.

Thanks to Chick-Fil-A at Carolina Forest for providing lunch for our hardworking volunteers during set up on Friday and to all the businesses and churches that donated to the event — Costco, Kroger, Lowes Foods, WalMart, Food Lion, Clarion Hotel, Christ United Methodist Church, Carolina Forest Community Church, Unlimited Sanitation and Conway Rental Center.

Thanks to the businesses and individuals who provided the prizes for this year's raffle — The Hampton Inn in Historic Charleston; Jenn and Josh, WARM Volunteers, for providing the Kindle Fire Tablet; the WalMart at Carolina Forest; the Myrtle Beach Pelicans; Diamond Back Golf Club and Kaila, WARM Volunteer, for providing the Brookgreen Garden admission tickets.

Thanks to ShipOnSite and Easy Radio for being with us on Saturday. ShipOnSite sponsors the Easy Radio Best Friend of the Week Pet Adoption program and partners with Easy to collect pet food and supplies throughout the year and then delivers it to area shelters. Nearly 500 lbs. of pet food and supplies were collected at WARM's event. Thank you to ShipOnSite and Easy Radio for their support of our area shelters and for their Best Friend Adoption Program to help place homeless pets.

"Thank You", once again, to each and every one of you who gave in so many ways — your hard work, your time, your donations, your monetary support. "Thank You" to everyone who attended our third Adoption Day/ Yard Sale/ BBQ event to visit with our animals, shop our yard sale and bake sale and enjoy a BBQ lunch with us. "Thank You" all for your support and help in making this a successful event for WARM.

WARM is an all-volunteer, no-kill, 501c3 organization that operates totally on donations and fundraising — every penny donated and every penny earned goes directly to the rescue and care of abused, stray, abandoned and unwanted animals who depend on us. Thank you for helping us continue our work — we appreciate you so much.