AFAustin’s 8th Annual "Going to the Dogs" Sale (Part 8)---Donations Made!

Friends,

My 8th Annual “Going to the Dogs” benefit sale is a now a wrap! This was the longest one ever---we started way back on June 8th with Part 1 here: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/afaustin%E2%80%99s-8th-annual-%E2%80%9Cgoing-to-the-dogs%E2%80%9D-sale-dedicated-to-petey-part-1.1732914/ We continued on through Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, with detours to the Buck and the Moderns subforums to sell a few there, and have now arrived here at Part 8---the Grand Finale! And this Part is what it’s all about---making the donations and helping the pups!

I’m happy to report that this has been the most successful sale ever, with 55 knives sold and $3040.24 in gross fees and contributions (I don’t take out for the PayPal fees or shipping costs, so the pups get it all). I rounded that up to an even $3050. I mentioned at the outset that I always try to get some matching funds when possible, and thanks to two generous friends of the recipient organizations, that was accomplished as well (details below).

As this year’s sale was wrapping up, I decided this would be a good time to go back and put together the stats for all of these sales. How things have progressed over time was eye opening. Here’s the rundown (and apologies that the numbers are all jammed together but the BF software doesn't want to incorporate the spacing in my little chart!):

Annual “Going to the Dogs” Sales:

# Knives Sold Sales Proceeds Match Total Donation

1st year: 4 210 290 500

2nd year: 7 (+ sharp. kit) 429 171 600

3rd year: 13 680 20 700

4th year: 26 1037 1037 2074

5th year: 27 1500 1500 3000

6th year: 32 1626 1626 3252

7th year: 41 2500 2000 4500

8th (this) year: 55 3050 3000 6050

When I tallied this up, I was pretty amazed at how this thing has grown. But the reason for that, and the reason we broke all records this year, is pretty simple: in recent years I have increasingly had “a little help from my friends”, and this year was no exception. First of all, some great buddies and BladeForums members sent me a bunch of beautiful knives to sell. In fact, of the total of 55 knives sold, fully 22 were from my generous donors! This great group of friends and donors have all asked to remain anonymous, but they know who they are and how much I appreciate them.

I have a rule to never solicit anything for this sale, but several kind hearted and dog loving members just took it upon themselves to send me cash donations. Most of these generous acts are referenced in the threads but I want to again thank Campbellclanman (Duncan), pjsjr (Preston), boyntonbob (Bob), nannybear (Ann), and .577NE (Arno) for their generous contributions.

Finally, I want to thank all the buyers—wouldn’t have been much of a sale without them! Several were repeat or multiple buyers who made an oversized contribution to our grand total. When I see these same good folks return year after year and buy up a bunch of knives, I just have to tip my hat to them---and that means you, Darren, Barbara, David, Mike, McKay, Ron, and Tom (and a few others I'm probably missing)! And many buyers even kicked in a little extra, in effect “overpaid” for their knives---and the pups, of course, will get every cent. Virtually every buyer also added some kind words of encouragement or support, and often told me a little about their own well loved pups (or sent me some great pics of their buddies!).

In the intro to Part 1 I said that I was going to try hard, as I have for the last several years, to find donation recipients which could secure matching funds so that the donations will have a bigger impact. Folks at the same great beneficiary organizations we had last year, the Austin Humane Society and Soi Dog, reached out to two dedicated supporters of their organizations, and they each agreed to match up to $1500 of the proceeds. I’m already a big fan of these two groups and so that made it an easy decision—I split the proceeds this year once again between the Austin Humane Society and Soi Dog. You can read more about them and their incredible work for the pups here: http://www.austinhumanesociety.org/ and here: https://www.soidog.org/ The generous Soi Dog board member and supporter who has furnished the matching donations for the last 3 years also sent me a link to a great short video which summarizes their work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x3M46HBgR8

I divided evenly the gross proceeds of $3050.00, so that was $1525.00 for each organization. The $1500.00 matches at each brought that up to a $3025.00 total contribution to each organization. So that makes a grand total of $6050.00 this sale raised for the pups! I’ve copied below the very gracious acknowledgment letters I received from the recipients.

Thanks again this year to Spark, the mods, and BladeForums for providing the perfect venue and allowing this sale to happen. And thanks again to the great contributors and buyers for making the result possible. Back in Part 1, I said that this year’s sale was dedicated to our “Little Big Man”, Petey, who we lost last fall. Remembering this great little guy provided the motivation and inspiration to make this year’s sale a success. Thank you, Petey---we won’t forget you.

Andrew

 

Thank you, everyone, for all the posts and kind remarks. It's no wonder that I've made a lot of good friends here---so many folks who love both knives and dogs!

I appreciate you all, and tonight Rosalinda and I will toast both you and the pups!

Andrew