T-R photo by Sam Stuve Director of the Animal Rescue League of Marshalltown Mikaela Simpson and dog, Tiffany, pose for a photo at the ARL’s location in Marshalltown. The ARL is having it’s first ever, “Draws for Paws,” fundraiser on July 31.

The Animal Rescue League of Marshalltown is doing a new fundraiser on July 31, called “Draws for Paws.”

It is a bar crawl event and has nine participating locations. Mikaela Simpson, the director of the ARL, said the fundraiser has been in the works for a few months and was created by a committee.

“We have a fundraising committee out here at the Animal Rescue League and so they just sat down as a group and brainstormed some ideas,” she said.

Simpson said the ARL has done successful fundraisers in the past, but that COVID-19 caused them to change how they were going to raise money.

During the last year and a half, COVID-19 has affected different organizations and how they raise money. Simpson said the pandemic led the fundraising committee to think outside the box.

“With COVID, it kind of changed how we were able to fundraise. So we wanted a more unique idea, I guess, that we could do for fundraising,” she said.

So far, the public has had a positive response to the fundraiser.

“People are getting excited, it’s just something new for our town,” Simpson said.

The ARL will see how many people participate this year, so a good target number is aimed for next year.

“Then that way we know what to expect in the future,” Simpson said. “It’ll be easier to set goals once we know what kind of base our audience is.”

A lot of fundraisers are volunteer run in one way or another. Simpson said this is kind of the case for the “Draws for Paws,” fundraiser.

“Our board of directors is the one that is kind of putting this on and the board is completely volunteer run,” Simpson said. “There are a lot of volunteers that are helping with this, but it’s been pretty much well covered. I know that we had a graphic designer come in and help and we’ve had a lot of participants that are willing to donate their time and money to be involved with this.”

Part of the committee’s planning for the event included reaching out to bars who would be interested in helping.

“If anyone they heard of said ‘Hey, we’d like to be involved with that’ they would call them,” Simpson said.

Nine locations are participating in the bar crawl:

• The Flying Elbow

• The 918

• Legend’s Sports Bar and Grill

• Vaughn’s Pub

• Old Timer Tavern

• Tannin Wine Bar & Craft Beer

• Calvin Rockett Bar & Grill

• Rumours Sports Bar & Grill

• Wayward Social Gutter Point

Registration is due by Saturday, but there is a chance to register after that but it will cost $10 extra. There are two different registration levels, a $30 participant level, which includes a grey shirt and a $50 Ultimate Giver Level which includes a sapphire shirt.

Once the punch card has been fully punched, the card can be taken to the Wayward Social, 1101 S 6th St., and will serve as an entry for a prize.

“There were quite a few ideas that they had and this was just one of the ones that we thought we could pull together pretty quickly and that the community would really enjoy,” Simpson said. “We’re really excited and hope it continues to grow next year.”

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Contact Sam Stuve at 641-753-6611 or

sstuve@timesrepublican.com