Wag N’ Walk coming to Old Town

Seal Beach Animal Care Center Announces the 17th Annual Wag N’ Walk fundraiser

By Lauren Tellkamp

Another dog day is coming to Seal Beach.

The Seal Beach Animal Care Center invites you to bring your two and four-legged friends to take a stroll through Old Town Seal Beach and enjoy the community expo as part of the 17th Annual Wag N’ Walk fundraising event being held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 29, at Eisenhower Park, adjacent to the Seal Beach Pier.

The walk begins promptly at 10 a.m. Participants are encouraged to register and bring their dogs to walk the one-mile course through old town Seal Beach. Community expo activities include a silent auction, a raffle with great prizes, vendor booths, a BBQ hosted by the Seal Beach Lions Club, live entertainment, a DJ provided by SoundWaves DJs, and a dog costume contest.

The Wag N’ Walk event promotes the animal shelter’s main goals: finding forever homes for all the lost, abandoned, and otherwise unwanted animals and educating the public about pet safety and responsibility. The Seal Beach Animal Care Center dogs eligible for adoption will be in attendance, strutting their stuff down a red carpet hoping to find their permanent homes.

“Each year, this community fundraiser draws more than 500 attendees from Seal Beach and surrounding communities along with their canine best friends,” Dee Carey, SBACC Board of Directors, said. “We are looking forward to a record setting event this year.”

Justin Rudd will be grand marshall for the seventh year in a row. Rudd founded and directs the non-profit Community Action Team and puts on about 62 community events, contests, and programs annually. He also established Rosie’s Dog Beach in the Belmont Shore neighborhood of Long Beach, which is the only off-leash dog beach in L.A. County.

Along with the Wag N’ Walk, a community expo will be held at Eisenhower Park located to the north of the Seal Beach Pier. Entertainment will be provided by the Disc Dogs of Southern California, who put on an awe-inspiring show promoting canine disc as a great way to keep family pets happy, healthy, and in shape. Adding to the fun, there also will be a dog costume contest. The winning best-dressed dog receives a gourmet pet basket donated by a local pet store. Attendees can sign their dogs up for the contest online at www.sbacc.org/wag or at the event.

A raffle will be held for a chance to win an Apple iPad, a MacBook Air, a Sony 42” TV, and a BluRay/DVD player. Tickets for the drawing can be purchased at the SBACC or online for $5 each. Local businesses have also contributed various items for the silent auction.

The following sponsors have generously donated funds to aid in Wag N’ Walk’s success: Run Seal Beach, Wasson & Simmon Attorneys at Law, Sea Air Credit Union, Stonegate Foods, Hapa Collective, Huggins Dreckman Insurance, Animal Hospital of Huntington Beach. Alpha Pet Care, Dog is Good, Centinela Feed, Chicken of the Sea, Southwind Foods, US Bank, Harvey Girls Gallery, and Woodruff Hair.

The Wag N’ Walk registration fee is $30 per walker and their dog. Registration for children under 12-years-old is $20. All registered humans will receive a Wag N’ Walk t-shirt while dogs will receive bandanas. To register for the walk, visit www.sbacc.org/wag. If you can’t attend, please consider participating as a virtual walker for $10 donation. The community expo is open to the public.

About the Seal Beach Animal Care Center (SBACC)

The Seal Beach Animal Care Center has served the city of Seal Beach since 1988. The SBACC averages 600 adoptions per year while helping hundreds more lost animals find their way back home. The Seal Beach Animal Care Center is a volunteer run, non-profit and pro-humane shelter. A staff of dedicated volunteers ensures the animals are kept as comfortable as possible until they can be placed into new adoptive homes. The SBACC believes that through adoption counseling and education, they are creating a community that cares for animals responsibly and compassionately. The SBACC provides licenses for Seal Beach dogs on behalf of the city of Long Beach, and issues permits to non-residents of Seal Beach who exercise their dogs at Arbor Dog Park. The SBACC is located at 1700 Adolfo Lopez Drive, Seal Beach, CA 90740. For more information, visit www.sbacc.org.