Second Chance Animal Services to Celebrate 20 Years of Helping Pets in Need

EAST BROOKFIELD — To mark 20 years of helping pets in need, Second Chance Animal Services will host an anniversary celebration on Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center. Second Chance is inviting supporters, volunteers, and animal lovers to join them for an evening of casino games, live music, auctions and raffles, food and drinks, and, weather permitting, a fire on the patio.

Second Chance started in 1999 as a small volunteer shelter in East Brookfield. The event, also sponsored by RE/MAX Realtor Wendy Johnson and Idexx, will celebrate all of Second Chance’s past accomplishments and all it plans to accomplish in the future.

Second Chance Founder and CEO Sheryl Blancato is grateful to everyone who has been a part of the 20-year journey and is looking forward to celebrating with them. “I want to thank everyone who has helped to bring the organization to what it is today. It is hard to imagine unless you saw the beginnings that we started with only $400 — and an idea. Today, we are helping over 37,000 pets a year. We are now one of the largest animal-welfare organizations in Massachusetts. We’re revolutionizing animal welfare with our approach to keeping pets in their homes instead of only adopting them out of the shelter. It has been an amazing journey.”

The event will take place from 4 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $60 and include starter casino money and a bounty of food at various stations throughout the venue with appetizers, pasta, salad and carving stations, a baked-potato bar, a cheesecake bar, make your own s’mores, and signature drinks by sponsor Tito’s Handmake Vodka. Tickets are available online at www.secondchanceanimals.org and at the adoption center at 111 Young Road, East Brookfield.