Raising money for animal care at KW Humane Society

The Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society is still totalling all of the money they managed to raise from this year’s National Cupcake Day, which took place on Feb. 27.

National Cupcake Day, an annual initiative to bring in money for humane societies across the country, has community members bake homemade cupcakes to sell to friends, family and others at a profit.

Those profits are then donated to help humane societies provide the appropriate care to animals.

Cristina Strub, events coordinator for the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society, remarked on the significance of the annual fundraising event.

“It’s actually extremely important to us,” Strub said.

“It’s one of our biggest fundraising events and we don’t receive any sort of government funding for the animals in our care, so we really rely heavily on the generosity of the community members and every penny that they bring in to us goes straight back to the animals and the care that they receive,” Strub said.

And this year’s fundraising effort, the result of which is not yet fully totalled, is sure to help the KW Humane Society continue to provide care to animals that need it.

“So we actually still have funds that come trickling in even through the month of April,” Strub said.

“As of right now, we have made approximately $27,000 and of course it’s still climbing, so we’re definitely going to be seeing some more money coming in over the next month,” Strub said.

“Australia has been doing it for a number of years now, and they’ve kind of expanded globally and it’s come into Canada, and as you can see, other people have really embraced this idea of baking cupcakes and selling them for a profit or actually just going out and finding their local venues that are doing it so that they can purchase the cupcakes.”

“Probably by about early May we’ll have a final number for everyone,” Strub said.

That money will go towards financing the variety of ways that the KW Humane Society aids the animals in their care.

“It costs approximately $30 a day to care, just basic needs, for an animal in our care. And that includes things like exercise, food, shelter, vaccinations and sometimes even microchipping,” Strub said.

But Strub iterated that those basic forms of care don’t always exhaust the services that the KW Humane Society provides to animals in need.

“Of course we have additional costs that could arise. So if an animal comes in and they require emergency surgery, we have an animal hospital on location, and again that’s all funded by donations either from sponsors or yearly donors, or of course these large events that take place annually,” Strub said.

In spite of what might be suggested by its name, National Cupcake Day actually got its start overseas in Australia.

“Australia has been doing it for a number of years now, and they’ve kind of expanded globally and it’s come into Canada, and as you can see, other people have really embraced this idea of baking cupcakes and selling them for a profit or actually just going out and finding their local venues that are doing it so that they can purchase the cupcakes,” Strub said.

Beyond National Cupcake Day, the KW Humane Society has a variety of other events on the horizon.

“We have the Wiggle Waggle Walkathon that we do annually and that’s going to be taking place at the end of May,” Strub said.

“And then we have our annual Surf Dogs that takes place over at Bingeman’s and that always happens in September when they close their pool down,” Strub said.