April 24, 2008

Swing-A-Thon, pets at the park Saturday

Journal photo by Brent Larsen

Poundage. Dale Watson (back, left), Harvest Foods district manager, stands with Girl Scout members Chanté Lehman, Alison Deckard-Meye, Bridget Banner, Holly Flynn, Kymberlee Webb, Bailey Caswell, Megan Buriak, Crystal Brooks, Kim Adams, Naya Bonita (front, left), Trinity Bonita, Sydney Herman, Hanna Deckard-Meye, Madison Melcher and Kristen Shaw on April 17 with a pile of donated food collected at the grocery store. The Girl Scouts collected the donations for the Ritzville Othello Pet Rescue.

Adoptable pets, community members, Girl Scout Troop 1310 and Ritzville Othello Pet Rescue volunteers will gather in the Ritzville City Park this Saturday, April 26, for a Swing-A-Thon.

A free barbecue kicks off the day’s activities from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will feature hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw and chips.

At noon, Girl Scout members will take turns on the swings in an effort to raise money for Pet Rescue.

The Swing-A-Thon is similar to a Walk-A-Thon. The Girl Scouts will take monetary pledges for a certain amount of time swinging on the swings throughout the afternoon.

At the same time, Pet Rescue volunteers will have pets available for adoption at the park, which may include some of the recently rescued hounds.

Dog Bite Safety and care of pets by Don Saunders will round out the afternoon.

The event is sponsored by the Girl Scouts as a community service project. Leaders Betty Rowcliffe and Arlene Brooks had discussed having a food drive for Pet Rescue prior to the rescue of six hounds on March 6.

When the duo found out about the rescue on March 13, the Girl Scouts decorated donation boxes that night and Rowcliffe distributed the boxes to Connell Oil, Ritzville Drug, Ritzville’s Pretty Good Grocery, Harvest Foods, Ritz Food Mart and Coast Hardware to collect dog food.

The Girl Scouts are accepting monetary donations at Saturday’s event, with Pet Rescue receiving all proceeds.