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Fundraising continues for Mission Valley Animal Shelter upgrades

Posted at 7:42 AM, Aug 20, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-20 09:42:58-04

POLSON – The Mission Valley Animal Shelter held a successful fundraising event nearly a year ago that raised roughly $45,000 for improvements and now the shelter is preparing for their second annual Puppy Party in hopes it will surpass the first.

Before the new upgrades, the shelter would often be forced to turn animals away when capacity was full but thanks to a fundraising event, the shelter is nearly three weeks away from being operational. 

The first phase of the project created six new kennels and one new office which allowed for more space for dogs and puppies to find a second home. Now, the shelter is reaching out to the community again for a second round of fundraising

They call it the Puppy Party 2, an event to generate money for much-needed upgrades to save more lives. Those include a new intake room, meet and greet room, cat area upgrades and a very important quarantine room.

“We have never had one before," Mission Valley Animal Shelter Executive Director Filip Panusz said. "We’ve never had a place to safely keep animals that are sick with a contagious disease." 

In hopes of getting the community excited for the second annual fundraiser, the Mission Valley Animal Shelter has some pretty amazing auction items — for example, flight tours over the Mission Mountains, Bob Marshell and Glacier National Park, a week-long Jamaican vacation, and a hand-crafted cedar kayak.  

Panusz says it’s all part of an effort to help save more lives and find these animals a forever home.

“It’s a great cause," Panusz said. "We are to accomplish a lot out here. We are the only shelter between Missoula and Kalispell and we have our hands full on the reservation with a lot of animals that are in need and a lot of people that are in need. This event is a great way to make a substantial difference in our area.”

The event takes place on September 7th from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. at the Red Lion Inn in Polson. The event will be catered by the Finley Point Grill. Tickets are still on sale and you can get yours by calling the shelter at (406) 883-5312.