Three dogs were adopted as a result of the beach party event, including Ghandi who was 11 years old, missing an eye, and struggling with Bordatella at the time.
One WTR bingo event resulted in Moli Jones being adopted; she has had a dramatic recovery but was hard to adopt at the time as she was quite ill and not necessarily expected to thrive.
.On our questionnaire, 5 people (17% of all respondents) indicated that attending a WT event contributed to their decision to adopt their dog.
So that is the hard data with events leading DIRECTLY to adoption of hard to adopt dogs. Franky, the events, as time consuming as the preparation can be, are less impressive to us as a way of adopting Hard to Adopt dogs Directly (we are generally not fans of event adoptions anyway- as many of our dogs are hard to adopt we are all about the adoptors being prepared). We tend to bring foster dogs to events to increase exposure, and only let those who we know directly or indirectly pursue adoption based on an event sighting.
2) Other indirect benefits of events that allow us to continue to rescue and place Hard to Adopt Dogs
For our organization the events are essential but more difficult to quantify in terms of boosting existing volunteer morale, recruiting new volunteers, and raising awareness. As an organization that relies on decentralized foster homes rather than a traditional shelter- we are aware that every new foster home allows us to save at least another life. For WTR, events are a way for the fosters and other volunteers to: feel connected with the group, thanked/rewarded/appreciated for their efforts, talk with peers, and see their pictures aftwerwards in a blog description of the event.
