by Dennis Dalman
Jenna Trisko of Sartell and many others are crossing their fingers that “Ruff Start Rescue” is honored with a contest win for $100,000 or, maybe at least, $50,000.
Their hopes, however, are dependent on people voting online.
The windfall would mean so much to them and to the animals they help care for through the Princeton-based Ruff Start Rescue, a foster-care program and adoption service for dogs, cats and other small critters that have been neglected, abused, abandoned or surrendered.
Trisko has worked for Ruff Start for four years and was named its development director about a year ago. Thanks to her professional background in grant-writing, she became aware of a contest dubbed “A Community Thrives,” sponsored by USA Today newspaper when her mother suggested she apply to win the contest.
It’s a video contest that applicants could enter under one of three categories: Wellness, The Arts or Education.
Trisko decided to enter, on behalf of Ruff Start, in the Wellness category – wellness for the many unfortunate animals who need forever-homes with new, loving families. For her video, Trisko talked on camera to prospective viewers about the need Ruff Start has for funds to accomplish more spaying and neutering (a free service for low-income residents), especially for the many cats they place in foster care and/or adoption. Winning the money would help Ruff Start start educational programs and training sessions at its new headquarters, now under renovation. For more about the plans, see Trisko’s full video.
Trisko said the non-profit Ruff Start gets grants now and then for spaying/neutering, but there is such an ongoing need that the funds tend to evaporate rather quickly.
To help give Ruff Start Rescue a chance to win a big prize, people can visit the contest website and vote for Jenna Trisko’s video. The vote-for-video contest is April 12 through May 12. Anyone can vote once each day for the Trisko video during that time frame. The top-10 vote-getting videos will then be viewed by a panel of judges. The top three winners in each category will each receive $100,000. The three second-place and the three third-place winners will each receive $50,000.
How to vote
Go to either of the following:
The Ruff Start website at:
www.ruffstartrescue.org. Then click on the “$100,000 Prize” graphic.
Or go directly to http://act.usatoday.com/submit-an-idea/#/gallery/57683593.
Watch the three-minute video of Trisko describing how Ruff Start Rescue would use the prize money.
Then follow the prompts: Enter your email address and answer a few questions. Then vote. People can vote once each day for the same video (in this case, Trisko’s) during the 30-day voting period.
The winners will be announced May 28.
Ruff Start Rescue
Ruff Start Rescue is a non-profit, no-kill foster-care network for dogs, cats and other small animals, such as hamsters or rabbits.
Since 2010, when it was founded in Princeton, 5,700 animals have been assigned foster homes throughout the state. The network of foster-home volunteers ranges from Duluth to Minneapolis and west as far as Alexandria and even beyond, not to mention right here in central Minnesota. Last year Ruff Start either fostered out and/or found forever homes for 1,601 animals.
“We’ve had wonderful, amazing growth,” said Trisko, adding with growth comes economic challenges.
For years, the organization had to make do with a building of only 1,000 square feet. Fortunately, they managed to raise enough money to buy a building in Princeton – a former auto-mechanic business – and soon they will have 5,400 square feet. The space, Trisko said, is vital for storage and for programming Ruff Start plans to initiate, including pet-education programs for all ages and for interactions between pets and people. Ruff Start does not keep pets in a shelter or kennel; they are all farmed out to foster-care homes far and wide. For educational programs at the Ruff Start headquarters, fostered-out pets will be brought to the building temporarily so they can interact with visitors.
The new building will also be used for group classes for dog-training sessions and for group classes for new foster-care individuals and families.
Ruff Start Rescue began literally with Hope – a suffering dog named “Hope.” Back in 2010, a Princeton woman named Azure Davis, who is still the Ruff Start president, started a pet-rescue operation in Princeton because she had always been a passionate animal protector and defender.
One day she happened to hear about a dog suffering terribly from heartworm disease at a shelter in Ohio. Davis said she could maybe help Hope as part of her planned extension of a foster-home program for Ruff Start. She contacted an animal-rescue transportation service that set up an itinerary for Hope: ground transport to Illinois, then a private-plane flight by a volunteer pilot and his wife to bring Hope to Princeton. The dog arrived in a very sick condition but, despite that, in good spirits.
Davis placed Hope in a nurturing foster home, and the dog’s foster parents fell in love with her. They decided to adopt her, and she has been a loving, happy pet ever since.
Ruff Start Rescue is always seeking and accepting donations to help its volunteers do their work. For more about Ruff Start, visit ruffstartrescue.org.
To donate, send a check to: Ruff Start Rescue, P.O. Box 129, Princeton, Minn. 55371