The Ninth Annual Dog Jog and 5K Run for the Richmond SPCA occurred on Saturday and what a huge success it was on every level! It is amazing to me to see how much that event has grown over the years since we first had just a few people and dogs running around the Dominion Resources building. The Dog Jog is so much fun for everyone – dogs, kids and adults. Early spring is a time when everyone is ready to get out and blow the cobwebs off, and this is a great chance to do that while raising money for the animals we all love. The weather cooperated beautifully and helped to make it a great day all around.
The Dog Jog this year was also bittersweet for us. John Birkitt has become such a big part of the Dog Jog over recent years, and we all adored John and loved working with him. We lost him such a short time prior to this year’s event. Years ago, when he and Brenda began to work so hard to recruit their Dog Jog team in honor of the memory of their son Johnny who died, we decided to establish the Johnny Birkitt Hero Award in honor of Johnny. They did such a remarkable thing in honoring their son through doing something wonderful for the animals and mission that he cared about. This year, we gave the Johnny Birkitt Hero Award to John Birkitt posthumously and his daughter, Joy Mays, was there to accept it. There was not a dry eye in the whole crowd, certainly not mine. John was a true hero. We will miss him terribly, and I know we will all continue to work to make future Dog Jogs great successes in his memory.
The most remarkable thing about this Dog Jog is the fact that almost 600 dogs (597 to be precise) registered. Of course every one of them had a human in tow. This fabulous participation from our community resulted in total of $114,000 raised so far and we still have a few more days of getting pledges and other contributions in. We hope that everyone will work as hard in the next few days to push that total up a little further as they worked in the days before the Dog Jog. To find a participant fundraising page, visit www.richmondspca.org/race.
This organization is so fortunate to have the incredible leadership of our two chairs Donna Beames and Julie Vinyard. They did yeoman’s work again this year and insured that the event would raise the amounts of money that would save so many animals’ lives. I could never thank Donna and Julie enough for their hard work and dedication to the Richmond SPCA.
To all of you who had a role, whether small or large, in making this Dog Jog a great success, I send my sincerest thanks. You worked, you raised money and you ran (or walked) so that other dogs and cats might live. And, they will because of you. You are true heroes too.
Robin Robertson Starr is the chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.
Related
Photo galleries from the Ninth Annual Dog Jog and 5K Run:
Photos by Rich Terrell
Photos by Jez Beasley
Photos by Bob Lanum
Video by Doug Callahan:
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