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The Animal Rescue League of Marshalltown's Draws for Paws fundraiser returns for the sixth year Saturday, Aug. 29 from noon to 6 p.m. August 17 is the deadline to register to guarantee a t-shirt to wear during the crawl.
The following businesses will be stops on the crawl:
El Portal
Legends American Grill
Lucy's Dive Bar
Old Timer Tavern
Rumours Sports Bar & Grill
Tannin Wine Bar
The 918
The Flying Elbow
Vaughn's Pub
Wayward Social
Participants drop by these places any time and in any order -- which also provides the opportunity to shop local. You receive a punch card to track visits to each stop. Once finished, fully punched cards can be turned in at Lucy's Dive Bar for a chance to win a prize (you do not need to be present to win). There will be live music at Lucy's by Rich Casciato from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., followed by Severio Mancieri from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Austin Chadderdon will play from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Tannin, which will be open at noon to accommodate pub crawlers and the public.
Peggy Hannam and Susan Krough return this year as event co-chairs. There will be 10 silent auction baskets (one at each participating business). You can bid from your phone, all day long, using the Bloomerang + Qgiv platform.
"Our participating businesses pay to be in this," Hamman noted. "Those silent auction items take us up. We're sitting at $15,000 in our pockets going into this."
The goal is to raise $20,000 through Draws for Paws. Last year, more than 200 people participated.
"People still sign up the morning of," Hamman added.
Registration is $60 a person and includes a Heather Orange event t-shirt. For $85, participants get to be an Ultimate Giver and receive a limited edition Heather Raspberry shirt.
Punch cards and shirts can be picked up at Legends on August 28 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. or the morning of the event on August 29 from 10 a.m. to noon, also at Legends.
A mystery box valued at more than $750 will be a highlight of the silent auction. The idea was inspired by the game show "Let's Make a Deal."
"We're pretty excited about that. We are going to have a teaser in front of the box," Krough said.
The box will include a bottle of Blanton's original single barrel bourbon Gold Edition, which is highly collectible, as a full set of the bottle stoppers spells out Blanton's.
"It's obviously for the bourbon enthusiast. We came up with the idea because we were sitting around a table with a bunch of bourbon enthusiasts," Hannam said. "We just wanted people to know there is a nice value in there and we hand-picked some beautiful items that are going to pair with it."
Austin Gillis, executive director of the ARL of Marshalltown, said the shelter's operating budget exceeds $650,000 yearly. He noted money raised would go toward various projects.
"We've got 17 acres out here and a lot of it is underutilized, so we've been working really hard on getting the property opened up, so we're trying to focus on not just beautification, but actual improvements. We just had an Eagle Scout work on doing some beautifying projects up at our pet cemetery, but years of wear and tear have really taken its toll on that area of the property, and getting some funding to help us get the equipment and the professionals in here that can help us bring it back to its original glory, is always going to be something great," he said.
The interior of the shelter has also seen a series of updates, including kennels, heating elements and enrichment ideas for animals.
"We have many irons in the fire, and anybody that's willing to lend a hand pulling one out, we'll take it," he added.
The shelter is in need of cat litter and cat treats, following hoarding cases that brought in nearly 40 cats at once. Towels and peanut butter are always appreciated.
"The more the community helps us, the more we can help the community. We've got a lot of big ideas that we'd like to bring to Marshalltown and surrounding areas, like low-cost vouchers, spay and neuter clinics, microchip clinics, all that kind of stuff," he said. "But we're not able to do it on our own. We need the support of the community to help us be able to organize those kinds of things. Even if you're not a bar crawler, any support that you're willing to help us out with is going to help us help the community that much more."
Gillis said the ARL recently obtained new cat kennels, purchased with funds raised at last year's event. The shelter now has four new banks of rolling cat kennels, five on each one.
"We have the 20 brand new kennels available and we're able to get rid of the outdated ones that were rusted," he said.
In addition, the cat adoption room has been re-done, featuring new paneling and removal of the old galvanized steel and chain link fencing.
To register for Draws For Paws, see the auction items and make a donation, visit:
https://secure.qgiv.com/event/d4p2026.