Thanksgiving is a time to pay homage to everything people have to be grateful for, and the Hampton Inn is using Thanksgiving as a way to give back to local pets.
The Hampton Inn, 986 E. State St., is partnering with the Athens County Dog Shelter to collect donations and bring homes to the local dogs.
Pupsgiving, as it’s more fondly known, has been happening for a few years and involves the Hampton Inn collecting donations in the hotel lobby, as well as posting on its social media.
The two-week event has the Hampton Inn posting one or multiple pictures every day featuring the shelter dogs or facts about dogs. Every post works to raise awareness of the event.
Jake Backus, director of inside sales at the Hampton Inn, is proud to have such an important event go through the hotel.
“It’s a drive to support our local dog shelter, so what we do is we schedule posts throughout the 14-day period where we’ll post pictures of dogs,” Backus said. “There are funny ones and ones of dogs that need a home currently at the shelter, and we write a little blurb about them to raise awareness.”
Inside the lobby, the Hampton Inn has a box for donations. Not only does it accept money for the shelter, but it also collects dry food, wet food, other snacks and many other items. People can also donate items that benefit the shelter employees in addition to helping the dogs.
“Anything can help,” Backus said. “Anything small, from hand sanitizers, bandanas, costumes, dry food, wet food. Even if it’s just small it will drastically help. Small things in numbers definitely generate enough help for the shelter.”
The Hampton Inn tries to do events to get more involved in the Athens area to better form connections among the residents. Backus thinks Pupsgiving is just another great way to get involved with the people in Athens, similarly to the inn’s Halloween trick-or-treat event.
“I think it’s great,” Backus said. “We did it last year and it worked really well. It’s one of those things where the shelter doesn’t always get enough money to support everything, and from what I understand it can be hard to manage. So we try to get as many donations as we can, especially in terms of food. There’s always dogs in need, in this town and in other towns, so it’s hard to support them all.”
Students are proud to see people reaching out to help the Athens County Dog Shelter.
Liv Jones, a sophomore studying psychology, loves dogs and thinks fundraisers like this can make a huge difference.
“I am so supportive of this fundraiser because I believe our furry friends deserve a great home and love and support, which we can provide through this fundraiser,” Jones said.
Juliana Merlina, a sophomore studying exercise physiology, wants every dog to go to a good home, so she greatly supports the fundraiser.
“I love the idea of the Hampton Inn fundraiser with the Athens shelter dogs because every dog deserves a home,” Merlina said.
Backus believes the fundraiser is an easy way to give back this Thanksgiving.
“It’s something that can be easily done,” Backus said. “It doesn’t take a lot of work. Even if you can’t make a donation, just sharing our Facebook posts to get the word out can help. Just a simple share could lead some of the dogs to a great home.”
