Former humane society resident Eggnog dresses warm for winter. Courtesy | Facebook
The Greater Hillsdale Humane Society’s annual 12 Days of Christmas raffle drawing will span 18 days, according to organizers.
The raffle fundraiser, now in its fifth year, aims to sell all 1,000 raffle tickets after starting in October. Each ticket is sold for $20.
The humane society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that does not get any government funding. It earns money through donations, pet adoption fees, and pet surrender fees.
“We do things like the raffle and different fundraising events throughout the year so that we can bring in more money and help more animals,” shelter director Joni Baker said.
Prizes include a Blackstone grill, $250 gift cards to The Udder Side, a five-day camper rental, and more.
People who buy raffle tickets can watch the Michigan Lottery Daily 3 on TV to see if they’ve won from Dec. 4 to Dec. 21.
Baker encouraged people to buy tickets even if they are not interested in the raffle prizes.
“You could still buy a ticket to support the shelter,” Baker said. “If you do win something, you can give it away as a present or you can even decline the prize. If the winner does not claim the prize for whatever reason, then they just draw another one.”
President of the board of directors Julia Bauer said that the society’s biggest expenses are the vet bills.
“We have utilities and we have payroll, and we have all the things that go along with running a business because essentially that’s what the shelter is,” Bauer said. It’s a nonprofit, but it’s a business to help support the animal population. So a lot of times people don’t understand that we have bills. We have to take our animals to the vet just like everyone else.”
Baker said people can also donate their time.
“We love having volunteers come out. We take volunteers anytime of the day that we are open,” ,” Baker said. “We are open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. I tell people that if they want to volunteer and help clean, we actually get here at 8 a.m. every day and start cleaning.”
Baker said that it is crucial for animals to get social time with people.
“The more different people that the animals see, the more adoptable they become because they get more socialized,” Baker said. “The more volunteers we have come in and play with the cats and walk the dogs, the easier the animals are to adopt. Then we can more quickly get them into homes and we can get more animals in here to help them.”
