Community Corner
Pups Will Walk for Cancer Research at Bark For Life, Sunday
Dogs (and their owners) have already raised more than $10,000 for Great Valley's Relay for Life.
Dog owners and dog lovers will gather at Charleston Township Park on Sunday afternoon to participate in Great Valley's 3rd Annual Bark For Life, an American Cancer Society fundraiser that has already raised over $10,000 this year. Proceeds will go to the Great Valley Relay for Life, which took place on May 21 but will continue collecting donations through July.
Bark for Life is a non-competitive walk event for dogs (and their owners) to raise awareness and funds to support the American Cancer Society's fight against cancer.
The three-hour event, from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, will include face painting, a patriotic pup contest, a relay course, demonstrations on agility and a one-mile walk for dogs and their owners.
"It's a great, fun-filled day," Bark for Life co-chair Vicki Hennig said.
The winners of the will also be announced on Sunday. The calendar is a Bark fundraiser in which 63 local and non-local dogs are vying for the 12 spots. This is the first year the Great Valley Bark has held the contest, and the response has been great, Hennig said.
Votes are $1 each, and the 12 dogs with the top number of votes on Sunday will be featured in the calendar, after a professional photo shoot. The goal for the calendar competition was to raise $2,000 through votes. The current total is $2,519. (View contestants and vote here.)
"People are getting competitive now about calendar," Hennig said. "We had a bunch of people at $25, a couple at $100, and a number of dogs were tied. Then people realized they really want their dogs to be in the calendar—so I don't think there's one dog under $51 right now."
Not only has the contest raised more money than expected, but word about the contest has traveled farther than expected, too.
"Just in our little, tiny Great Valley Bark contest, we have one dog from Hawaii and another from California," Hennig said.
That's fairly impressive, especially considering that most people haven't heard of Bark for Life, Hennig said. Many have heard of Relay for Life, but Bark for Life is still a relatively new idea.
"Until people come to a Bark, they don't know what a Bark is," Hennig said. "We're still so new that it's hard for people to get the concept."
Bark for Life is essentially a mini-Relay for Life at which dogs are not only allowed to attend, but celebrated.
"Dogs act as caregivers and are very important parts of the lives of their owners," Bark for Life founder JoAnn McKiernan said.
McKiernan knew Bark for Life was meant to be after she organized a dog walk for the 2007 Pottstown Relay for Life. "By the end of the fundraiser, more dogs had come than people—it was a sign," McKiernan said.
Great Valley's Bark began in 2009, a year after the first-ever Pottstown Bark for Life, with the help of Hennig, who works at The Seeing Eye and started a seeing eye puppy team years ago at the Great Valley Relay for Life.
"Our puppy team became a huge fundraiser," Hennig said.
After Pottstown started Bark for Life, the American Cancer Society approached Hennig to see if she would begin a Bark for Life in Great Valley. Pottstown and Great Valley's Barks were two of the first, and now Bark for Life exists all over the United States.
"Bark has all the same elements as Relay," McKiernan said. "… It's really exciting because it brings in new people, new survivors, new money for research. It's wonderful."
Great Valley's Bark for Life takes place on Sunday, June 12 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Charleston Township Park, 3 Southwest Ave, Phoenixville.
