Newtown Students Promote Walk For Dogs On Nov. 5

By Eliza Hallabeck

After conducting a bake sale this past summer that raised $140 to give the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), Middle Gate fourth graders Maddie Stites and Kylie Giroux wanted to do more.

“The SPCA works so hard, so I wanted to pay them back. My idea was to host a dog walk with my friend,” wrote Maddie on one announcement for the event.

The event will raise money for SPCA’s no-kill shelter in Connecticut that serves Newtown, Trumbull, and Monroe.

“I hope to raise at least $250 to buy them a new kennel,” Maddie wrote on a website created for the event.

The upcoming Saturday, November 5, Walk For Dogs, for both kids and adults with or without dogs, is scheduled to take place on the Fairfield Hills Campus trails, starting on the Wasserman Way side of the trails. A $5 donation for each walker is being sought, and can be paid in advance or on the day of the walk.

Maddie says the 1.6-mile walk event will kick off at 9 am.

“We’re hoping to at least have 50 people,” Maddie said this week.

Maddie said both she and Kylie came up with the idea for the walk.

“We were both thinking of a way to help the SPCA, and at the same time we said, ‘Let’s do a walk.’”

Kylie said both fourth grade students have asked their classes to help the cause by making posters that will be displayed at the school and around town before the event. Maddie said flyers had already been posted in some locations at the start of this week.

Both Kylie and Maddie are also working to raise money for SPCA in honor of Maddie’s two dogs, Mary, a Rottweiler mix and a Hurricane Katrina rescue dog, and Sunny, a full flat coat retriever and also a rescue dog through SPCA.

“We really like the SPCA,” said Kylie, “and after [Tropical Storm Irene] we really wanted to help.”

The girls have been working on hosting the walk since September, and, Kylie says, have very little work left to do.

Donations for raffle items are still being sought. The Meat House, at 266 South Main Street, and Canine Advocates of Newtown have already donated toward the raffle.

“We’re hoping people will come out because it helps dogs get exercise — some dogs don’t get enough of that — and also people can get exercise,” said Maddie.

While Kylie said she does not have dogs of her own at home, she wanted to help with the walk, “because I think [dogs] are fun to play with, and a joy to have around. And I always love going over to [Maddie’s] house to play with her dogs.”

The girls have also set up an e-mail address and website for anyone interested in learning more, signing up for the walk or in donating to the cause: Walkfordogs@yahoo.com or www.wix.com/walkfordogs/walk-for-dogs.