A significant milestone is coming up for a local animal rescue charity.
Pound Rescue will be celebrating 30 years in operation in the Foothills.
The animal rescue was established in 1994 by Dr. Gabriele Barrie, known by those close to her as Gabi.
Barrie passed away in late 2023, and following the announcement on Pound Rescues' Facebook page came a flood of memories and thank yous for her decades of dedication to animal wellbeing.
Pound Rescue's President, Rosa Kurtz, recalls that Barrie was one of the first people she met after moving to the Foothills.
"I met her from an ad in the paper, we had just moved here from the west coast in August, and then I met her in September. She gave me my first two dogs in October and it just never stopped after that. We became best friends. She was an animal rights person, which changed our whole family. All my kids have Pound Rescue animals, all my extended family, friends. She was awesome, she was very smart, very compassionate. It became her life, she gave up everything for it... She taught me a lot, she taught me everything I know."
Kurtz has been with Pound Rescue for about 24 years and says quite a lot has changed in how it operates since she first began.
"With cellphones and everything like that, it's actually harder, almost, because we're notified so many times a day. When we first started, it was in the newspaper, you had to wait for the paper to come out, and someone would phone you and say 'Hey, I saw your ad.' It was much more calm in the beginning, and easier. I had a lot of fosters, I was one of the only ones who fostered puppies at that time, so even though it was busy at that time, it wasn't like every single minute of the day that you were on call."
One thing that hasn't changed is their small-town feel.
Their operations aren't based out of a central office, says Kurtz, but rather the space that their team members and volunteers can provide.
"We're all foster-based, so there's really no facility for dogs and stuff like that, it's just through our volunteers' home that things are kept at and stored at. My husband has a shop, so I've taken over a bit of that sometimes."
One sure sign of growth is the amount of volunteers and foster families that have offered their services.
"There are lots that have stayed with us for years and years. Stephanie's been with us for ten-odd years, Fiona has been with us for years and years. And we've got new ones that have come in that are so strong, and help out with adoption events. We've grown that we, we're doing more public stuff because we have such great volunteers who are willing to give up time for these animals," says Kurtz.
Pound Rescue will be marking the occasion with a celebration event on September 21.
Food, family-friendly activities, and a few baskets they'll be raffling off.
It's a chance to meet the people behind Pound Rescue, and also for people who have adopted an animal from them to catch up and share any updates they might have.