Laguna Madre Humane Society hosts fundraiser

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Knox Jones and Jonny Walker and the Blue Velvet band will be serenading the night while animal lovers mingle over meows, mutts and margaritas tonight.

“Meows is a glass of wine, a mutt is a beer and we have some local bar tenders donating their time to make margaritas,” said Chrissy Dijkmam, Laguna Madre Humane Society vice president.

The Laguna Madre Humane Society will be hosting its annual evening fundraiser tonight to help support their cause to helping Valley animals find a good home and for spay and neutering.

The event is open to the public.

“Tickets are $25 per person or $40 for two,” Dijkman said. “Where else can you go to get drinks, dinner and live music for $40 bucks a couple.”

The dinner fundraiser will be held at Casa Mariposa on the Island.

“We have food from all the local restaurants so we can keep the ticket prices really low,” Dijkman said. “Gabriella’s Grill, Sea Ranch, Louie’s, PadreRita Grill, Russo’s and Jason’s Deli all donated.”

She said the food is going to be really great and it’s an open bar all included in the price of the ticket.

Last year about 300 people attended the event. People can pay at the door and its kid friendly.

“I would like to be able to help at least 2,000 dogs and cats a year,” Dijkman said. “We are spay and neutering about 50 or 60 a month.”

She said the fewer dogs that are born stray then the less are going to wind up stray.

The LMHS spay & neuter clinic has spayed/neutered around 4,000 animals since July 2012.

The RGV Rescue Ride-LMHS transports approximately 100 abandoned dogs a month from the RGV to a rescue partner in Denver.

The dogs are either immediately adopted or fostered in a home.

The organization has made 22 transport trips (one or two a month) since February 2015, finding homes for approximately 1,300 dogs so far.

“Each trip costs about $1,000,” Dijkman said. “And that does not include spay and neuter or vaccinations.”

She said the trip is expensive and the fundraiser is what helps pay for the transport and spay and neuter clinic.

To also help pay for costs, the LMHS will have plenty of items that are available through the event’s silent and live auction.

Some of the items include a paddle board, tickets to Elton John, dinner for 10 with unlimited wine, and deep sea fishing.

“We got some really, really great auction items,” Dijkman said. “And it’s really fun.”

LMHS is a nonprofit animal welfare organization. It cares for the animals in the Laguna Madre area, and receives no assistance from the City of Port Isabel or South Padre Island.

The LMHS keeps the Port Isabel shelter a “no kill” facility by saving any dog that is placed on the shelter’s euthanasia list.

“We are funded by donations only and we do one major fundraiser a year and this is what keeps our spay and neuter clinic going and it helps provide money for the transport for the dogs that we send out of state for adoptions,” said Beth Fedigan, LMHS president.

“It’s going to be a fun party.”