Dogbomb Leads Furry Fandom To Highest Fundraising For ALS Cure Event
by Tuck Tucker
As a group, the furries really made a great impression today. Everyone was polite and respectful and engaging and fun. It was just what a fundraiser like this needed, and they called us rockstars. And we were!
— Careless Whiskers (@dogbomb1) November 11, 2018
You all should be VERY proud of yourselves.
$33, 735 raised!
Inspirational furry, Vet Tech, and champion of ALS awareness Dogbomb (Tony Barrett) has led the fandom with a notable achievement for charity. In the second weekend of November, a small army of furry supporters came out for his Walk To Defeat ALS event in Southern California. Their goal was to raise awareness and research funds for this fatal disease with no cure (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).
Patch O’Furr spoke to San Francisco Bay Area furry Zarafa Giraffe, after his return from the weekend in SoCal. It drew furries who drove from Northern California and even flew in from other states. Zarafa gave a rough estimate of 75-100 furries at the walk that he estimated as mid to high hundreds – making them a significant chunk of the whole event, as well as a third of the entire donations.
It’s been an amazing day. Walk to fight ALS for @dogbomb1 this morning. (over $30K raised by furs!) THEN SoCalFurBQ w/300 furs this afternoon! So much community, caring, snugs and hugs! Huge thanks to @TripECollie & @gjsabala for organizing the Walk, & @Catwoman69y2k for the BBQ! pic.twitter.com/n3UrUluSR0
— Zarafa (@Zarafagiraffe) November 11, 2018
The walk synched with a FurBQ where Zarafa estimated 300 in attendance (perhaps the high end of size for local furmeets less formal than cons). Meeting many new members encouraged him to make more trips to participate. That’s the kind of snowball effect that builds up to bigger things, and gives them power to reach out and make the world better.
That fandom power propelled both Dogbomb and the furry team all the way to the top of the fundraising leaderboard on the alsa.org webpage.