The Hawaii Island Humane Society’s dream of having a state-of-the-art Animal Community Center in Keauhou is one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to numerous contributions and two large donations.
Last Friday, Anne and John Ryan, part-time residents of Kona, donated $500,000 to the Hawaii Island Humane Society during the organization’s 19th annual Tropical Paws fundraising gala.
The couple said they wanted to inspire others to donate and thought that by offering a $500,000 contribution and encouraging others to match their price they could make a dent in the money needed to start building the new facility.
And they were right.
Not too long after their announcement two other attendees, Vivian Dixon and John Chapple, doled out $250,000 and within a half-an-hour donations totaled $1 million.
Anne Ryan said she is a cat and dog lover and has been advocating for animals for many years. She said she believed in giving to the Humane Society in order to see what she describes as a much-needed facility come to fruition.
“The location by the dump is a dreadful location for animals and for people to adopt. The new facility will be so much more wonderful,” she said.
She also said her husband donated the money as a birthday gift to her.
“My husband joked that since he forgot to get me flowers, he’d do this instead,” she said.
The $1 million will help close the gap for the money needed to build the first phase of the Animal Community Center, which costs about $3 million. Now only $300,000 dollars is needed to pay for phase one, which includes building infrastructure, architecture engineering plans, construction, grading, restrooms, a cat barn, dog room and pavilion and the dog park. Phase two will include the construction of a new spay and neuter clinic and Second Chance Place for stray dogs, cats and other animals.
The new facility will sit on 12-acres in Keauhou. Preliminary groundwork started earlier this month.
According to the press release, plans for construction started a few years ago when the organization received an anonymous $800,000 donation to transform the former quarry site into the new animal community center.
Susy Ruddle, HIHS board president, said in a press release, “Every gift counts and we are extremely excited about our progress. We have been so fortunate to have had excellent support from very generous donors and numerous community groups and individuals who have stepped forward to contribute thousands of volunteer hours to the project,” she said. “This big hearted outpouring of support allowed us to get the bulldozers started with rough grading and infrastructure development three weeks ago.”
The mission of the Hawaii Island Humane Society is to promote respect for all animals, prevent cruelty to animals, eliminate pet overpopulation, and enhance the bond between humans and animals. HIHS holds a contract with Hawaii County to enforce certain animal-related laws and offers 24-hour service for injured animals and other animal emergencies, humane education classes, low-cost spay and neuter services, lost and found assistance, microchipping and more.
For more information or to make a contribution online visit HIHS.org.