News

Our First Annual Cruizin for the Critters Motorcycle ride was a great success!  With over 65 riders and earning a profit of over $2600, everyone had a great time.

Thank you to all the vendors, sponsors, supporters and most of all riders who rode with us, even though we had to make a last minute date change due to weather.  You were all awesome!

Please see this youtube link for some fun photos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbeqZ1_nyMQ&feature=youtu.be

Despite the rain and snow and ever dropping temperatures the parade went off without a hitch! We had 7 dogs trotting in the parade with smiling committed volunteers!  It was a great time and we handed out over 350 brochures (and a lot more candy!) to those determined parade watchers along the 1.5 mile route.  Everyone had smiles and "Awwwwws" for all our dogs.

Some excellent photos of the parade were taken by photographer Jon Pelletier of  the Verde Independent newspaper and can be seen at the following link:

http://verdenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=99&SubSectionID=1990

You can go right to photo #125 to see some of our dogs and volunteers or to photo #127 to see Sierra Neblina and her canine pal Bree. But take a look at all the photos!  Everyone out there had a smile on their face!  What a terrific community we live in!

We want to give a big thanks to our staff and volunteers who braved the cold: Peggy Taunton, Sandy Sullivan, Esther Shapiro, Jennifer Nicolella, Ellen Yates (who walked in the parade AND created all the dogs costumes), Kyla and Jim Allen and their children Janae Allen, Nico Littlejohn and Ethan Littlejohn, and to our Executive Director Sierra Neblina.

And an even bigger thanks goes to the Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce for sponsoring and organizing the event and committing all the volunteers and staff to make it happen without a hitch!
                    You are amazing!

Verde Valley TV 2, through Yavapai Broadcasting, has a new show airing titled Senior Living.  This show highlights not only important news for seniors, but also talks about events around the Verde Valley.  Kyla Allen, the president of the board of directors of AFLCFA is the third interview in the show.

The Center was invited to attend a taping last week which is now airing from Dec 1st through 15th, and if you don't catch us then, you can click on this online link www.myradioplace.com, then click on VVTV in the upper right corner, then the yellow Senior Living link, to see our interview.

Thank you to Yavapai Broadcasting and the Host of Senior Living, Pam Irvin, for having us on the show!

Congratulations to Jennifer Nicolella at the Adopt-For-Life Center for Animals for obtaining 1st Responder Large Animal Rescuer Certification.  This allows her to respond as a small and large animal breed rescuer during accidents such as flipped trailers and disasters such as flooding or storms where rescue for animals such as horses, cows, sheep and dogs is needed. She received this training from the Arizona Equine Rescue group.  The Center is grateful for the time she has devoted to this certification and knows it will be of great benefit to our community!

The Airfest was a great success.  Though we had only one person able to man the Center booth at the event, We received $72 in contributions into our doggie bank and had a lot of interest and a lot of inquiries. The biggest question was when is the new thrift store going to open and where will it be?  Right now the Board will be discussing a possible location at the next board meeting this Wednesday.  Finalization on a location might be as soon as Tuesday, November 1st, with the goal to open by December 1st.  So all you donors out there with cupboards waiting to be emptied, please hold on to your goodies for another month or so!  We will be glad to take your extras off your hands at that time.  And for those loyal shoppers out there, we are thinking about you!  Hopefully, when our doors open once more, you will be pleased at what you see!  Thank you to all our supporters!

There was an article in the Verde Independent about the September 24th Annual Meeting.

To view this article, please copy and paste the below link into your web browser:

http://www.verdenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubsectionID=73&ArticleID=44004

A representative from Purina Dog Food in Flagstaff contacted Executive Director Sierra Neblina on Thursday, the 15th, to let us know they were donating 5000 pounds of dog food to the Center!

I could not wrap my mind around how much dog food that was!  We rented a U-Haul truck and headed up to Flagstaff early Friday morning and 6 HUGE pallets of dog food later, volunteers were lined up at the Center to help unload the food.  We used every nook and cranny to store the large 35 pound bags.

A big thank you to Purina Dog Food for your tremendous generosity to our Center!

Kyla Allen, President
Board of Directors

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

To everyone who made this event such a great success.  Especially to  Julie Shoup, Darren Cole, Debra Van Horn and to Lisa Pender, owner and operator of Rendezvous in Old Town (RIOT).  Without you, this couldn't have happened. 

To everyone who came out to support the Center, to pet some wet noses and just visit with some really neat folks we are so grateful.  The Adopt-For-Life Center for Animals was gifted with nearly $4,400 dollars from your generous hands, and had one beautiful dog adopted as well.

You are an amazing community!

Kyla Allen, President
Adopt-For-Life Center for Animals