Fundraiser provides grants for pet healthcare
By Nicole M. Wells, Special Writer
MONROE — Letting the chips fall where they may, around 300 people came out Saturday night to roll the dice at the Vet-I-Care Foundation’s second annual Luck of the Paw Casino Night at Forsgate Country Club.
The pulse of the room audibly thrummed as the substantial crowd gambled the night away to raise money for the foundation’s mission of helping animals heal and giving families hope.
According to foundation Director Eileen Schuck, thousands of pets with treatable conditions are put to sleep each year because their owners are unable to afford necessary specialty care, which may incur vet bills totaling thousands of dollars.
“We have many applications that come in,” she said. “Animals that are injured, seriously ill — they come into hospitals all across the nation and with the economic downturn a lot of the families can’t afford the veterinary care.”
That’s where Vet-I-Care comes in.
The foundation helps people and pets stay together by helping families secure the resources needed for treatment, she said.
According to Ms. Schuck, in 2013 Vet-I-Care was able to help approximately 100 families through grants totaling around $100,000.
“Most grants are $1,000 but it depends on the case,” she said. “Some we can give more.”
Unlike with CareCredit, clients do not need to pay back Vet-I-Care grants, Ms. Schuck said.
The tables were packed, as games of roulette, black jack, craps, poker, Let it Ride and money wheel drew seasoned and inexperienced gamblers alike with the promise of winning big.
Each attendee was given $75 in casino cash upon entry, with various chip specials throughout the night for donations made to the foundation.
Chips could be turned in to any dealer when finished playing, and for every $100 in chips, the individual received one ticket board, comprising 26 tickets.
The tickets could then be used to bid on any number of prizes lining the back wall. According to Vet-I-Care board President Maria Lutz, all of the prize items were donated to Vet-I-Care.
“Every raffle prize was donated,” Ms. Lutz said, “which means 100 percent of the proceeds all goes back to the animals so that’s why it’s so important.”
Glazed pottery pieces, framed artwork, gift baskets and a giant knit Greyhound were just some of the items that gamblers could play for.
An open bar and dinner and dessert buffet also came with the $125 all-inclusive ticket price, which slaked the thirsts and fed the appetites of those gathered.
For the non-gamblers in the crowd, the magical comedy of Mike Spade was on display, as he walked the room, entertaining those he met along the way.
While Vet-I-Care began as a Jersey-centric organization, within the last two years the foundation has been able to open the fund to help families and their pets across the country, Ms. Schuck said.
Donna Fisher, 28, said she and her co-workers at the Animal Hospital of Richboro probably traveled the furthest to attend the event, having come from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
“We actually had a client at the hospital I work at use Vet-I-Care and they were wonderful,” Ms. Fisher said. “Very easy to use.”
It was obvious the client loved her pet but she didn’t have the resources and had been turned down by CareCredit, Ms. Fisher said.
“People really love their animals and the economy’s really tough nowadays,” she said. “We saved her cat’s life because of Vet-I-Care so we really wanted to come out and support the cause because it’s wonderful.”
DeckerWright employee Courtney Zatorski, 47, of Red Bank, said that she came out to support the foundation because NorthStar VETS is a client of her firm’s and because Vet-I-Care’s mission speaks to her.
“I think it’s important for everyone to have pets,” Ms. Zatorski said. “Even if you can’t afford to take care of them, I think they can enrich your life and everyone should have the opportunity to have a pet and not worry about whether or not they can afford the care.”
She said that her family is on a mailing list and is considering rescuing a hypoallergenic dog but that the cost of unanticipated care is a concern.
“One of the reasons that we second-guess it is for the care and I’m sure that a lot of people are much worse off than we are and they deserve the chance to have a pet,” Ms. Zatorski said.
Platinum paw sponsors of the event included NorthStar VETS and Fulton Bank of New Jersey. Hill’s Pet Nutrition and Henry Schein Animal Health were gold paw sponsors, while Allegiance Landscaping and Good Mowin’ Lawn and Landscape Service were silver paw sponsors. Bronze paw sponsors included Fotek Insurance Solutions, Hamilton Pet Meadow Memorial Park & Crematory, Blueprints Veterinary Marketing Group, the Trenton Thunder baseball team, Antech Diagnostics, DeckerWright Corp. and Taco Bell.
Also supporting the event were New York City Glitz, Mid-Atlantic Mechanical, Mary Anne Broderick Photography, Greyhound Friends of New Jersey and the Lutz family.
According to the organization’s website, Vet-I-Care is a 501(c)3 non-profit charity funded entirely by community generosity and fund-raising events.
It was formed in 2004 by NorthStar VETS technicians and doctors who encountered pets that pulled at their heartstrings when the families could not afford life-saving treatments, according to the organization’s website.
“It’s really important to us to reduce the amount of economic euthanasias,” Ms. Schuck said. “Animals are members of the family now and so to us it’s really important that we can save more pets.”
More information on Vet-I-Care can be found at www.vet-i-care.org.