Animal shelters in the Okanagan received an overwhelming amount of support from residents taking part in the Betty White Challenge on Jan. 17. The challenge encouraged all animal lovers to make a donation to a local animal shelter for White’s 100th birthday on Monday.
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January 18, 2022 - 7:00 PM
Animal shelters in the Okanagan received an overwhelming amount of generosity from British Columbians taking part in the Betty White Challenge on Monday.
The challenge encouraged all animal lovers to donate to their local animal shelter in White’s name to honour the icon and animal advocate for her 100th birthday on Jan. 17. Sadly, she died just days before her birthday.
The B.C. SPCA raised more than $400,000 throughout the entire province.
“It’s a record for the B.C. SPCA in online donations in a single day,” SPCA spokesperson Eileen Drever said. “It speaks volumes on the impression that Betty White left.”
The SPCA will use the funds wherever the greatest need is, from sheltering services, cruelty investigations, providing emergency medical assistance, rehabilitation, or education.
“It’s incredible, the figure we raised. There’s no competition, we’re all out to do the same thing, and that’s to help the animals,” Drever said.
Meanwhile, in Summerland, the Critteraid Animal Sanctuary raised more than $20,000 that will be used to build a new goat structure.
“It was very successful,” said organizer Brenda Kemp. “It was so exciting, and the day was full of energy.”
READ MORE: Betty White's birthday may be fundraising boost for Okanagan, Kamloops animal shelters
The team is excited to start working on the structure for the goats to use by the summer.
“Right now, the goats are sharing the barn with the ducks and the chickens, so it would be nice to have their own little place,” Kemp said.
Throughout the day, people made donations for every member of their family, and every pet they have ever had all in White’s name.
“The old school way of being able to donate with the kid’s putting money in the bin, people really responded to that,” Kemp said.
The operator of the Warren Peace Bunny Sanctuary in Lake Country, Annie Monod, was at a loss for words with the generosity British Columbians showed the small shelter on Monday.
“We made over $4,000, for us that’s a lot of money. We didn’t think we would get a penny,” Monod said.
Throughout the day, Monod received donations with messages from people she hasn’t been able to connect with for years.
“It was really nice to know the people hadn’t forgotten about us,” she said.
The funds raised will be used to feed over 100 animals for about three months.
READ MORE: Betty White, an ageless TV star, was America's sweetheart
The funds raised through the challenge take some stress off of Monod as the cost of feed has increased more than she expected due to the natural disasters last year.
“I was looking at things going ‘oh my gosh,’ I didn’t budget for things to go up this much,” Monod said. “It takes all that stress off, and I wasn’t expecting it.”
When the donations started coming in, she had to stand in her kitchen with her phone plugged in trying to say thank-you to everyone who donated.
“There are no words for it, we’re so thankful. Thank you for thinking about us, yesterday was very emotional with people’s generosity and that they would include us in the challenge, we’re just a little tiny bunny sanctuary,” Monod said. “It got me right in the heart, and to see all the good that came out of yesterday, there were no words.”
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