National Jr. Honor Society members family adopts Button the cat, raised money for Hopes Legacy & Trust
NJHS member Katie Moreu raised funds to help local organization.
Eighth grade Stephen Mack Middle School student Katie Moreau is a member of the National Jr. Honor Society. As part of her membership Moreau was required to complete a project.
Moreau chose to support Hopes Legacy & Trust, a place close to Katie and her family's heart.
Requirements were to lead a project and to volunteer to help someone else.
On July 9 of this year the Moreau family adopted a kitten and lovingly renamed it Button ,(originally named pumpkin),who is estimated to be almost a year old in October.
“My family and I have always wanted to have an orange female cat since most orange cats are male. Our neighbor helps foster cats and kittens. She asked my 17 year old sister to cat sit one night, that is where she met Button,” Moreau said.
Button was renamed because Katie’s mom had an orange cat when she grew up, who was also named Button. We wanted to pay tribute to her childhood cat.
Helping to raise money Moreau sold homemade potholders, dish scrubbies, pet treats and applied tinsel art at the Rockton River Market on Sept. 9.
Extra funds were made through the sale of raffle tickets for nice prizes. Ticket information and sales were found on Facebook, geared toward family and friends and on neighborhood websites.
Other sources that tickets were made available were at the Rockton River Market and on online at the Hopes Legacy and Trust website.
Between ticket sales, money collected from the items sold and raffles Moreau raised around $313..
Moreau’s mom Amy worked alongside her on the project.
Amy went one step further in support by donating a Pet Safe Fresh Feed Refrigerated Pet Feeder. A second raffle prize was a basket filled with cat goodies. The Moreau’s neighbor expanded on more donations.
“I chose Hopes Legacy & Trust because we wanted to make sure other animals could get help like Button,” Moreau said.
Hopes Legacy & Trust Founder Holly Hartley said, “We are humbled that Katie chose our organizations to raise awareness and funds for because there are so many equally deserving organizations to choose from.
Button’s story is one that will go down in history for me. Because of her unique circumstances we were able to help a community cat with the Trap Neuter Return program, as well thanks to another animal advocate Sara Rogers.
Katie is going to do amazing things in life and I hope she will always remain an advocate for animals in need. “
Hopes Legacy & Trust
Established in April of 2016 Hopes Legacy & Trust Fund is a fund designed solely for the purposes of covering the vetting costs of stray and abandoned animals in need of medical care. It is a non for profit organization.
HLT has covered the costs of trims, vaccinations, heartworm testing, flea/heartworm preventatives, microchips, leg amputations, humane euthanasia, ER visits, parvo treatment, boarding and more.
The journey to forming Hope’s Legacy started when Holly Hartley found what she thought was an opossum on a snow covered ditch in Beloit, but later discovered that she had found a cat.
“You could visibly see that she was suffering from something and I picked her up and took her directly to the closest vet clinic, Madison Road Veterinary Clinic. “We gave her the name Hope because we were hopeful she would survive, “Hartley said.
Hope suffered from frostbite to her face brought on by an acute upper respiratory infection. The drainage would freeze, drain and refreeze.
“We have no idea how long she was left in that condition. She also was the first cat I had come across that tested positive for heartworm and eventually she had to have one of her eyes removed,” Hartley said.
Hope was cared for by the amazing staff of MRVC over her three month stay in the medical boarding.
Sadly, Hope was never claimed nor was HLT able to secure foster or rescue for her ,but she was later adopted by a wonderful family in Dubuque, Iowa.
On April 11, 2016 Hope had to be euthanized her health had become so compromised that she no longer had quality of life.
Aging a cat can be difficult and is mostly determined by tartar on their teeth. It was estimated that Hope was eight plus years of age.
During the time she was being cared for, great support rolled in for Hope and her caregivers. Over $8,000 was raised to try to save her. Total costs to take care of her alone hit around $5,000. The remainder is how the trust was created, so this could be “Pawed-It-forward” to other animals in need.
Currently HLT has faced the challenge of low donations. “The demand is still high and we’ve tried to incorporate fixing as many animals as we can, including one recent household that HLT spent over $3,500.00 alone fixing and vetting sick cats,” Hartley said.
Hartley adds, “Every dollar is greatly appreciated and is put back into helping animals in need of medical care.
All proceeds from every fundraiser goes into an account at Madison Road Veterinary Clinic. “We send anyone needing help to them so they can utilize the funding, we also keep a small amount in our “Petty Cash” fund to use as needed to purchase food or litter for animals we are helping, “Hartley said.
One of Hartley’s friends helps with domesticated animals and another works with wildlife. Other friends have jumped on board to design and or create some of the fundraising ideas.
Sometimes HLT has on occasion helped owned animals when funds were available.
Additionally HLT offers a donation to a rescue, if a rescue placement is needed for an animal that they have been involved with helping. “HLT tires to offset costs to the receiving rescue.
HLT has also helped with funding when trying to save dogs from illegal meat trade overseas. On occasion they have also helped with purchasing a cat tree as an incentive to prevent people from declawing their cat.
It is important to note that Hope’s Legacy & Trust is not a rescue.
Hope’s Legacy & Trust can be found on Facebook and accepts free will donations.
Hope’s Legacy honors the memory of life of one special cat, but holds great strength and passion for animals that need help both now and in the future.
Hope’s Legacy & Trust can be found on Facebook and accepts free will donations via PayPal at paypal.me/hopes legacy or directly to Madison Road Vet Clinic by calling 608-362-1952. A mail in option is also available. Please send to: 1800 S, Madison Rd. Beloit, WI. 53511.
Recently Hopes Legacy & Trust hosted their sixth annual fundraiser that was hosted by Moon Shadow Tattoo. That event brought in $820.
