Santa Clarita Valley Relay For Life Team Holds Bark For Life

Posted by: Jessica Boyer in Santa Clarita News October 26, 2013 - 3:27 pm 0 303 Views

The Santa Clarita Valley Relay for Life team and the American Cancer Society held their 3rd Annual Bark For Life Event on Saturday.

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“Relay for Life, which we have had for now 16 years in the Santa Clarita Valley, does not allow dogs. So every year, because it’s at the park people bring their dogs and we hate it because we have to tell them to leave,” said Teresa Kerr, event chair of the Bark for Life of the Santa Clarita Valley. “We’re all dog lovers, we don’t like to say no and the owners don’t like it.”

Hundreds of local dogs and their owners walked around the West Creek Park in Valencia in an effort for raise money for cancer research.

“A couple years ago, someone in Pennsylvania started a Bark for Life event. When we saw it, we thought it was perfect for this valley because this valley is very animal friendly and dog friendly,” she said.

Dogs were able to win prizes for Biggest Dog, Smallest Dog and Best Smile while their owners could enter a raffle and silent auction to win fun things for the dogs.

“So three years ago we had out first one at Bridgeport and now were at West Creek Park,” said Kerr. “We were so excited, we get to have an event just for the dogs and our planning committee, throughout the whole process, wanted to keep in mind what dogs want: to meet other dogs, eat and walk around.”

About 13 “packs” competed to raise money for the event. The “Top Packs” came out to being the Barking Flowers, The Real Housedogs of Tesoro, The Butt Sniffers, Tracey Hauser Cobalt Realty and Coldwell Banker Vista Realty. The “Top Dogs” are Kim Volkmar, Lisa Bomben, John Nuzzi, Junko Hall and Sara Woerter.

“Three of the booths are vendors, one is a rescue, and the rest are teams of people who are competing to raise the most money,” Kerr said. “It gets very competitive.”

Mini of Valencia was the “Top Dog Sponsor” of the event along with KHTS AM 1220 who was a major media sponsor.

“We met our goal this morning before the event even started, so thank you to the Santa Clarita Valley,” she said. “The goal was to reach $10,000.”

All of the proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society to fund cancer research and awareness.

“The event turned out great, the weather was a little warm but other than that, everything turned out great,” Kerr said.