Rover or Fido rolling around on the grass a lot this summer? Do they have the scent of a happy dog in summer? Well, then, it might just be time for a bath!
On Saturday, August 26th, take your furry friend over to the Holliston Pet Meadows Resort, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to the 8th Annual Baypath Dog Bath. For a donation to the Baypath Humane Society, your pal will be pampered and primped and ready for some great pics! Look for the Snoopy House on the lawn of the resort, and park at the Fatima Shrine to attend.
The event is being run by Holliston High School sophomore Henry Tate (who was away when Local Town Pages called).
“This is the first year Henry’s taking the reins,” says Michelle Tate, Henry’s Mom, who has been holding the dog bath with her kids, also including older daughters Madeline and Samantha, for a while now.
Since he was a young boy, Henry’s family has been running this bath with the help of many volunteers through Holliston Roots and Shoots a children’s volunteer organization and an offshoot of Jane Goodall’s international Roots and Shoots program.
“I have three kids and my oldest girls were in Girl Scouts. However most of the projects they did at the time were inside and arts and crafts, and they love animals. Well, I’ve always been a Jane Goodall fan, and she actually has a club called Roots and Shoots, so I started a Holliston chapter about 10 years ago. We did all kinds of projects, but our main project was a dog bath. We held the first one in my driveway.”
Tate enjoyed the fact that Roots and Shoots was geared toward a love of animals. The Holliston chapter members were passionate about helping out homeless pets, so a benefit for Baypath seemed appropriate.
“It’s a project close to our own hearts,” says Tate, who says she and her kids sometimes just go over to Baypath to spend time with the dogs and cats. They also have two rescue dogs themselves, Jack Russell terriers Fiona and Rudy.
Donations to the dog bath will benefit Baypath Humane Society of Hopkinton, www.baypathhumane.org.
“Baypath needs the money,” says Tate. “It’s a no-kill shelter, and they’re very dedicated. We want to continue to help them even though Holliston Roots and Shoots is no longer a club.”
The dog bath doesn’t take place every year, only when Tate has time to hold it, but these days she is helped out by their veterinarian Dr. Rodney Poling, whose daughter Anne runs Holliston Meadows Pet Resort. The Holliston Meadows Pet Resort has generously hosted all the baths except the first one. The resort also provides all the water, hoses and shampoo for each bath.
“It’s mostly run by kid volunteers. They bathe the dogs and they have a little raffle,” says Tate, who describes Holliston Meadows as good, kind hosts. “We probably get about 60 dogs on a good day, 50-60 dogs per bath.”
Money from the snacks and raffle will be donated to Holliston’s K9 Cesh. As a young boy, Henry was interested in police, and when he heard about the need for a K9 unit in town, he started raising money to help fund K9 Cesh. Henry hosted his first bake sale at the Spring Stroll the year before Officer Stone acquired Cesh. Since that time, Henry has consistently run a snack table and raffle at each Baypath Dog Bath to raise money specifically for K9 Cesh.
In addition to the bath, snacks and raffles, the Baypath Dog Bath will also accept donations of goods, such as extra (clean) towels, blankets and sheets, dog or cat food, leashes, dog beds (clean), detergent and cleaning supplies. If you have any questions, or would like to volunteer, please contact Henry at hwtate02@gmail.com.
“We take any and all donations,” says Tate. “We’ll do it for anything. We’re just doing it for the good of the dogs and the cats. Anything (people) can do to help out is great.”
Issue Date:
August, 2017
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