The action was really howling at the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility (ACARF) on Wednesday.
Internet personality Kris Rotonda, founder of the organization Jordan’s Way, stopped at ACARF as part of his 50-state tour, focused on bringing attention and much-needed funds to animal shelters across the county.
Rotonda spent four hours pouring frenetic energy into his Facebook live feed, spotlighting animals, calling for donations and making various challenges to viewers.
One activity involved having ACARF staff throw whipped cream pies at each other, and another, “puppy love,” entailed letting near-newborn canines lick ACARF staffers’ faces.
Other challenges resulted in shelter animals getting rewards like cups full of whipped cream, aka “pup-puccinos,” or McDonald’s hamburgers.
At one point, Rotonda even led Sheriff Bryan Murphy back into the kennels and locked him up; hence the game became to see who would donate money to “rescue” him.
When the dust cleared and the barking stopped at 2 p.m., around $11,000 in donations had been raised.
In the midst of all the action, Rotonda momentarily slowed down to talk with this Register reporter about the story behind Jordan’s Way.
“Jordan was a dog I adopted in 2008,” he said. “She was in a shelter for three years.”
“She was one of those dogs, I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t noticed,” he added, but it was this experience that led him to realize that even the most promising potential companions don’t always stand out.
Hence, “one of my biggest things with Jordan’s Way is getting the unnoticed, noticed,” Rotonda noted.
Rotonda also agreed whole-heartedly with the idea that his rescue dog “rescued” him, which partly fuels his passion.
“I was moving from Jersey to Florida, and I was in a rough place, having a hard time,” he said.
“Jordan gave me courage and strength, and without even saying anything.”
“She was so well-behaved, so well-mannered,” he added. “She just had something different, a different flare.”
Sadly, Jordan, the “German Shepherd bull mastiff samoyed mix,” died of cancer in 2018.
“When she passed away I said I was going to do something about it,” Rotonda exclaimed, and that “something,” was creating the organization named in her honor.
He said the most he’d ever raised was $36,000 in four hours for a shelter in Iowa.
“I love sitting with the dogs,” he said. “I love shining a light on the dogs and cats, and the people who run the organizations.”
And it’s going to take lots of love to fuel his mission, since Rotonda not only plans on visiting every state, each state has an average of six shelters for which he plans to host events.
Kansas was his nineteenth state, and ACARF his 79th shelter, after already being on the road for five and a half months.
“We’re doing 10 Kansas shelters in five days,” he said.
As for what the future holds, Rotonda said, “I’d like to set up a Jerry Lewis-style telethon every time I show up, with people working the phones.”
That is, growing the organization larger and larger, and with increased numbers of volunteers, which is happening with each new shelter Rotonda visits.
“I want to be that Make-A-Wish type organization but for shelters,” he added.
“Hopefully we’ll have millions of online followers one day … It’s growing really fast.”
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