Rescue pups in need of a forever home at Cape Ann Animal Aid now have more welcoming surroundings and places to walk thanks to Tito’s Handmade Vodka.
On Friday, July 18, and again Wednesday, July 23, volunteer crews made up of local and regional employees of Austin, Texas-based Tito’s Handmade Vodka and representatives of their Massachusetts distributor partners came to 4 Paws Lane to refurbish the West Gloucester nonprofit animal shelter’s wooded walking trails and spruce up its gardens.
The two hands-on service days were made possible by the Block to Block program of Love, Tito’s, the vodka brand’s philanthropic arm.
The volunteers upgraded Cape Ann Animal Aid’s outdoor spaces where rescue dogs get walks and outdoor time with the shelter’s volunteers or their future pet parents.
The summer-long initiative includes a $10,000 matching campaign, with Tito’s generously matching every dollar up to $10,000, in an effort to raise the $20,000 necessary to enhance the existing fencing of the shelter’s outside play yard enclosures as clever dogs have figured out how to dig under it.
This project involves digging a two-foot trench, pouring concrete and sinking the fencing into it so the dogs can’t dug under the enclosures.
It also includes the installation of a visual barrier between two of the three play yards, providing a measure of privacy for reactive dogs that need extra space. Cape Ann Animal Aid also plans to install solar lighting and agility equipment.
A link to the campaign, which runs through Aug. 31, can be found at https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=9DFW4NHK42ZYN or on Cape Ann Animal Aid’s website, capeannanimalaid.org.
Last year, Cape Ann Animal Aid serviced more than 1,000 cats and dogs through adoptions, animals brought in as strays and returned to their owners, and low-cost veterinary services.
A crew of about 30 volunteers on July 18 focused on making the shelter’s formerly overgrown walking trails more accessible by clearing overgrowth and dead wood, evening out pathways, cutting steps into the hillside adjacent to the Christopher Cutler Rich Animal Shelter, and assembling benches and birdhouses.
“We are making our trails more accessible,” Cape Ann Animal Aid Director of Development Jane Young said . “So, we marked the trails so that they are easy to follow for our volunteers who are walking the dogs. We have some benches up there, so some nice quiet spaces. So I think our trails were a little under-utilized, honestly, for a while, so I think this is going to make it a lot more accessible for our folks.”
On Wednesday, a crew of about 25 prepped soil, installed mulch and gravel, planted native, pollinator-friendly plants in several gardens and assembled birdbaths, benches and a new garden shed to store string trimmers, lawn mowers and other equipment.
One of the gardens will sport a “Vodka for Dog People” Tito’s bench that will have the wording: “Sit and stay awhile.”
Tito’s Northeast Field Sales Manager Victoria Lewis of Shrewsbury spoke about how she adopted her cat, Meeko, from Cape Ann Animal Aid in 2021.
Lewis said Tito’s has worked on initiatives with Cape Ann Animal Aid in the past, including in February 2020, doing volunteer days and celebrating the sponsorship of the organization’s Winter Ball. It’s a relationship that has grown over time.
“Clearly, today and last week we were able to do these amazing volunteer days,” Lewis said Wednesday. The volunteer crews were made up of a handful of local Tito’s employees and those from Tito’s Massachusetts distributor partners: Martignetti Companies on July 18 and M.S. Walker on Wednesday.
Lewis said the Love, Tito’s Block to Block program, which started in 2019, this year expanded from the creation of community gardens to organizations in the animal rescue space, supporting veteran centers or improving the environment.
She said Tito’s is known as the “Vodka for Dog People,” after employees and the owner began aiding stray animals that would wander onto the distillery property in Austin during its early days at its distillery. This led to a program helping animal rescues such as Cape Ann Animal Aid across the country .
“It’s my favorite part of the company,” Lewis said. “I love animals.”
“It’s really wonderful to see a private company come and help a nonprofit like this,” said Cindy Dunn, a Cape Ann Animal Aid board member. “They did all this labor. They bought all these plants,” she said of the native pollinators the crews planted that morning that will allow Cape Ann Animal Aid to aid other critters as well.
“It just gives us a real boost to be able to expand our mission into saving butterflies, bees and birds.”
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.