Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the quintessential childhood activities, like lemonade stands and bake sales, have been put on hold. But one local charity is looking to help kids get back out there and raise some money for a good cause. The South Riding-based Canines-N-Kids Foundation has created BARKE SALE kits and boxes to help kids and other organizations host their own neighborhood fundraisers.
The foundation is offering children and volunteer groups free and paid boxes with the materials needed to organize their own bake sale to help other kids and dogs beat cancer.
The free BARKE SALE kit includes flyers and postcards to promote the sale, tips for success and a form to send in the proceeds. The BARK SALE box costs $20 and features everything in the kit, plus a dog-bone cookie cutter, recipes for both people and dogs, stickers, a poster and more.
In a press release from the foundation, Ulrike Szalay, executive director and founder of Canines-N-Kids, said, “During this COVID-19 era, we want to encourage kids to sell pet treats—using social distancing and masks—to help raise needed research funds, as well as awareness about how dogs and children share many of the same cancers.”
Since the foundation is launching this program during a pandemic, participants will also receive tips on how to stay safe. Some of those suggestions include hosting a sale in a neighborhood instead of a commercial area and using the provided paw graphics to mark out 6 feet along the sidewalk.
The Canines-N-Kids Foundation is a local nonprofit that focuses on finding cures to cancers found in children and canines, including bone cancer, brain cancer, lymphoma and leukemia.
Funds raised through the BARKE SALE program will go toward the foundation to help further research and treatment of cancer in canine patients and to help develop medicine and a cure for children with those same cancers. To hold your own BARKE SALE in your neighborhood, register at Canines-N-Kids.org.
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