ATHABASCA – With costs continuing to rise for an animal shelter in Athabasca County, the local hockey scene is looking to raise some money and have fun doing it.
Richard Nolan’s now yearly “Pucks for Paws” hockey tournament seeks to bring the community together while also raising money for the Second Chance Animal Rescue Society, which has been kept busy since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The tournament is combining two things most people live: animals and hockey,” said Nolan, who has also hosted charity concerts to help raise money for SCARS.
“Last year was a huge success; all the players wanted to come back this year. It was the talk of the town.”
Pucks for Paws is expanding for 2025; alongside the on-ice portion, Nolan is planning on setting some corn hole games in the Athabasca Regional Multiplex during the March 28 to March 30 event. A skills competition will allow local players to strut their stuff, and Nolan re-jigged the draft structure to make the games a little more equitable.
“We’re adding a couple more fun activities upstairs in the lounge and to keep people entertained and having a good time.”
All the funds from the tournament are going towards SCARS, which will be used to purchase supplies, toys, and healthcare for the animals living at the shelter. While donations are great, Nolan said what’s really needed is an increase in foster homes to get some of the cats and dogs out of their cages.
“There doesn’t seem to be a much support right now, and we’re overrun with animals. There’s no space,” he said.
“Putting together big fun events like this helps to raise both awareness and funds for SCARS, so it’s a win-win for everybody. Even if you don’t love animals and you just want to play hockey, you’ve contributed to a great cause by signing up.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, SCARS has been inundated with surrendered or lost pets. The shelter re-homes over 1,400 animals a year, alongside other services including a spay-neuter-return program which seeks to reduce animal dumping and unwanted litters.
“We have a really high adoption rate of really young puppies, but right now at Second Chance we’re really struggling with adult dog adoption,” said Amanda Annetts, SCARS’ intake coordinator.
“Getting these long-term dogs adopted is our focus going into 2025.”
Annetts said the older dogs can stay in the shelter for more than 800 days, something she hadn’t seen before, and the longer lodging makes things more expensive for the shelter and worse for the dog.
“It means a lot of dog food, a lot of vet appointments, and we’re paying for their stay and boarding,” she said.
“We’re finding we’re spending a lot of money of those types of things so these sorts of fundraisers are super important.”
While the shelter does house cats — Annetts said about 150 of the 400 animals currently homed are felines — they tend to get adopted at a similar rate to the puppies.
The entirety of SCARS funding comes from donations, according to Annetts, so events like Pucks for Paws help to keep the lights on at the Athabasca County and Morinville locations.
“I can’t even put into words how important events are; they’re what we live for every week, every month, every day,” she said.
“Our volunteers put a lot of time and effort into these events as well and it’s all done on volunteer time, which is absolutely incredible.”
Annetts said anyone looking to help at the shelter, or who wants to investigate the foster process, can look at SCARS website for additional info. The Athabasca location is also in dire need of volunteers — interested parties can reach out to SCARS at [email protected].
