This past Saturday, Liberty Humane Society held its biggest event of the year—the 12th annual Bark in the Park fundraiser at Stevens Park in Hoboken. LHS gets all of the injured wildlife as well as stray and lost domestic animals from Jersey City, Hoboken, and Bayonne, which is no small feat. In addition to fundraising much-needed money for the organization, the event was a fun celebration of LHS’s work in the community—and especially of successful adoptions to date!
The event kicked off at noon, with local food and goods vendors, music, face painting, arts and crafts, a bounce house, and more. Throughout the day, LHS offered low-cost microchipping to attendees, and of course had dogs and cats on site for those looking to add a little more love to their lives. As predicted, heartstrings were tugged, and three adoptables found loving new homes during the event. Congrats!
The first scheduled activity of the day was the much-anticipated Walk-n-Wag Fundraiser, where teams who participated in fundraising efforts strutted their stuff along the Hoboken waterfront. Adoptables, past adoptees and other visiting canines and felines there to support LHS mingled together throughout the day.
Jersey City’s own police department was on-site with brave and loyal canine companion Cee Jay. We learned how the K-9 unit has both narcotics and bomb-sniffing dogs, as well as how the canines assist officers in the line of duty. A huge shout-out to Officer Rossy and Officer Barzola for keeping everyone informed and being so friendly while doing it!
As if we needed any more proof of the scale of impact that LHS has had on the community, celebs Chloe Kardoggian (Instagram: @chloekardoggian) and Mauro Castano of Carlo’s Bakery’s Cake Boss (Twitter: @CakebossCastano) made special appearances, taking photos with fans and doing autograph (and paw-tograph) signings.
The LHS face-in-hole photo spot was also a huge hit of the day—and it wasn’t only humans cheesin’ to tell everyone to adopt local!
Professional trainer Laura Waddell was also on site to answer any questions that pet owners had—and attendees sure kept her busy! I also watched her make recommendations for some of the LHS pups, too, and they really seemed to respond well to her direction.
An incredible event to support an incredible organization. If you missed out on Saturday, please don’t let that stop you from donating to LHS. Municipal funding covers animal care for only one week, so community support is essential for LHS to keep on keepin’ on. All money raised through Bark in the Park will go to medical care, spaying and neutering, training, adoption, and fostering, and everything in between that our local animals need.
– Erin
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