May 19 will definitely go down as the day of the most successful fundraiser in the history of the Central Aroostook Humane Society.
Kris Rotonda and Greg Edwards with Jordan’s Way traveled all the way up to Aroostook County to hold a live four-hour Facebook fundraiser. They set a hefty goal to raise $15,000.00 for the animals. As of Jan. 10 of this year, the duo had raised $987,000 for shelters across the country and had high hopes of reaching the million-dollar mark.
Kris, the founder of Jordan’s Way, met his best friend and inspiration 11 years ago at a local shelter. Jordan had spent her whole life in a shelter until Kris was able to rescue her. Over the years they helped each other grow as their bond strengthened.
Kris said, “Many of us know the profound affect that an animal can have on your life, and the impact that we have when we rescue shelter pets.” Sadly, Jordan passed in the fall of 2018 after a battle with cancer. Kris made a promise to honor her life by helping as many shelters in need as possible, founding Jordan’s Way.
Kris and Greg are on a 50-state tour and will be visiting 400 shelters by the end of the year. They arrived at the Central Aroostook Humane Society and created a wild and exciting four hours that had people from all over the country donating on Facebook and calling in, and many people stopped by to witness all the excitement.
With the help of the shelter employees, board members and volunteers, Kris had challenges that included pies in the face, ice bucket challenges, pushups, and bail-out games that had more than a few locked in the dog pens or outside in the dog runs until a certain amount was raised. One favorite was that our board president’s daughter, Anna, had to lie on the floor and have her face covered in whipped cream, and four rambunctious puppies licked it clean.
Several young boys showed up to donate, and Tanner Collins had fun being pie-faced by his buddy Adam Hunter.
When everything was said and done, by the end of the four hours more than $13,000 had been raised. Kris and Greg were blown away that they had reached their personal goal of $1 million at our little shelter here in rural northern Maine. We were all amazed at the generosity of family, friends, coworkers and just the general public who showed support, love and such kindness in their hearts for animals.
Kris says that he loves bringing exposure to all shelter animals and hopes to shine a bright light on all the shelter employees, board members and volunteers that work so hard. Well, on Wednesday, May 19, Jordan’s Way certainly made that light shine bright at the Central Aroostook Humane Society.
Gloria Towle is the secretary and a member of the board of directors of the Central Aroostook Humane Society.
