Habersham County Animal Care and Control (HCACC) has officially ended its campaign to raise funds to purchase a transport van. The Road to Rescue campaign raised $88,941, exceeding the $66,000 goal by 35%.
“Going into the campaign, we didn’t know what to expect. We’ve never had a campaign of this size, but we were completely overwhelmed by the incredible generosity of those who donated,” says Madi Nix, HCACC Director. Nix notes the campaign was boosted by three five-figure gifts from donors, including two $10,000 matches and several four-figure gifts. In all, 151 donors gave to the campaign.
The money raised in the Road to Rescue campaign will fund the purchase of a new Ford Transit High Top Extended Length van (or similar vehicle) and cover any needed modifications. Any money not used to purchase the van will be placed in a designated fund to help cover fuel and other costs associated directly with transport, such as driver costs and tolls, HCACC says.
“We are actively looking for a van; however, the vehicle shortage due to the pandemic is impacting our search more than we thought it would,” says Nix. “Our goal is to purchase the van, make the modifications needed and have it on the road this fiscal year.”
“We are so incredibly excited to be able to say that this vehicle was 100% donor funded during this especially difficult time for taxpayers. We project that the entire transport program will be able to run off these donated funds for one year. We look forward to finding
creative ways to keep the program self-sufficient financially without relying on HCACC Operating Expense funds.”
Since 2019, HCACC has been able to save hundreds of lives by transporting dogs and cats facing euthanasia due to overcrowding to animal organizations in the Northeast to be adopted. Without their own van, HCACC has had to rely on the generosity of other rescue groups to provide unused space on their transports or borrow other vehicles from neighboring shelters.
The new van will have the capacity to transport 20 adult dogs and/or 40 cats per trip, allowing HCACC to save over 1,000 homeless animals per year. That figure is more than double the current transport rate. Freeing up more space in the shelter will reduce the number of animals that have to be euthanized due to shelter overcrowding.
To learn more about HCACC, visit https://www.habershamga.com/animal-control.cfm.
