BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
VALLEY — Community leaders, local residents and volunteers gathered together at the Chattahoochee Humane Society shelter in Valley for a fundraiser Wednesday evening of this past week. Traveling animal welfare advocates, Jordan’s Way, led by founder Kris Rotonda live streamed a three hour online video event in which shelter staff members participated in a series of games and challenges which succeeded in raising over fifteen-thousand dollars to support the CHS. Many laughs were shared in person and via social media as staff members suffered through pranks such as pies to the face, eggings, tortilla slaps, chest hair waxing, head shavings avoided at the last minute and head to toe condiment coverings from bucket pours.
Shelter Director Phalisha Saddler Hadaway gave a brief statement on the CHS mission near the end of the live stream. “We are a small shelter in a county with a lot of strays. We took the shelter from fifty-five adoptions up to almost three-hundred this year. In 2023, we turned it into a no kill shelter and we are trying to maintain that. We need as many fosters and adopters as we can get. It is amazing how the community is showing up and showing out. Friends, families, villages, other rescues. Everybody, thank you so much.”
CHS board member Holly Wheeler shared many of the same sentiments in her own remarks. “I am a board member, one of nine. This has just been a game changer. We have seen such a difference in the last several years. We currently have forty-seven kennels. We just had a donation from the City of Valley for the hill shelter and we have doubled our space. We are able to help our community even more than we were before. Right now we are overflowing. We have forty-seven kennels for our sweet pups. We have over fifty-two dogs if you include the puppies. We need fosters, we need adopters, we need donations like you guys did tonight. We are here for you and you have been here for us, thank you.”
Wheeler shared one more humorous detail with the audience before the live stream ended. “We did hit our goal and those of you in our community who know Kenny Knox and Denise Clark, they have agreed to say the dreaded words that neither one wants to say. You will be seeing a facebook post on the Chattahoochee Humane Society facebook in the very near future showing Ms. Clark saying ‘war eagle’ and Mr. Knox saying ‘roll tide’. That is worth every penny.”
