news-record.com

REIDSVILLE — It’s not often you can get a used vehicle for just $2.

But that’s what will happen Saturday when the winner of a 2006 Chevrolet Colorado is named at the Drive 4 Shelter campaign’s fall festival.

The campaign has spent more than six months selling the $2 raffle tickets and other items to raise $22,000 for the Rockingham County Animal Shelter. Drive 4 Shelter is an arm of the county’s campaign to build a shelter.

The $22,000 is part of the more than $100,000 total that has been raised for the new facility, but that money will go specifically toward a spay and neuter clinic.

“Spay and neuter is the only permanent solution to having a crowded shelter,” said Deb Sterling, Drive 4 Shelter’s campaign manager.

The new shelter is scheduled to open in Wentworth late next year. The county now rents space from the Reidsville Veterinary Hospital, but it is inadequate for the number of animals it holds.

Sterling came up with the campaign’s name and figured she needed an automotive company to partner with. Meanwhile, David Tifft, general manager of Smith Stokes Automotive, said he’d been searching for a cause to support that would bring the community together in the midst of tough economic times. The company donated the truck for the campaign.

Campaign members drove the truck — decorated in paw prints — to festivals and events in Rockingham and Guilford counties and in Virginia. While educating people about the need to spay and neuter, they raised money by selling raffle tickets, bumper stickers, T-shirts and other items. They also conducted two telethons in conjunction with WGSR-TV in Reidsville.

“We have participated in over 45 events from the time we opened the campaign till now,” Sterling said Thursday.

Tifft said the goal was to raise $25,000. He said he expects to reach that goal since the campaign will go on through the end of the year.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com