Flashback to 2018, being a first-time dog owner, I had no idea how many beloved pets suffer with Cancer. My beloved chocolate lab, Capone, was diagnosed with cancer in June 2016. With chemo treatments and a special diet, Capone lived 18 months. If you ran into Capone anywhere, you would not believe he was ill. He was full of life until his last day. After making the decision all pet owners hate to make, I decided I wanted to honor the memory of Capone and make other owners aware of how many pups suffer with this illness.
I contacted some friends and fellow dog lovers and told them what I wanted to do. After doing some research, we decided to organize and hold a Monessen Puppy-Up Walk. The Puppy Up Foundation raises funds to help support research in canine cancer. We held our first walk in 2018. We raised $13,000 through sponsors, walkers, and other donations. We held numerous raffles, food trucks, a dog show, and the blessing of the animals.
The 2018 walk was such a success, we decided to do it again and try to make this an annual thing! The 2019 Puppy-Up Walk was easier to organize since we had a road map from the previous year. In 2019 we raised $11,000!
This group of friends and volunteers loved organizing and putting on these walks, but we decided we wanted to do something different to keep the money locally in the Mon Valley. Check out our next blog post to see what happened in 2020!
Mon Valley Paws 