New Rochelle Humane Society to Celebrate Centennial

After 100 years of providing tender loving care for cats and dogs in need, the is gearing up for its Centennial Celebration at the at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

The celebration will feature silent and live auctions, "dinner by the bite," wine, beer, cash bar and dessert.

New Rochelle Humane Society Board of Directors member, Dianne Heim said the funds raised from the Centennial Celebration will be used to build a wellness clinic with a surgical and recovery area and to expand the shelter to provide more space for the animals and for meeting and education rooms.

Heim said while the humane society is looking back to its history, the organization is also looking to the future to be better than it is now.

“We have a new logo and a tag line which says, ‘From our home to yours,’ ” she said. “We believe we provide the animals with such good care and love that we are truly a temporary home for them until they get a second chance by being adopted into a loving forever home. 

“We will provide this care for them at long as it takes for this to happen,” Heim said.

Items up for the live auction include seven days at a luxurious villa in the Mexican Riviera, an electric guitar autographed by Eric Clapton, a backstage visit to Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel and four tickets to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.

Many special guests will be in attendance to celebrate this major milestone, including Maria Milito, Q104.3 radio personality; Prince Lorenzo Borghese, cosmetics entrepreneur and animal advocate Brandon Hannon from The Sopranos; Bocker the Labradoodle, a certified therapy dog known for his TV and movie appearances; Rick Caran and Jilli Dog, the world’s only poker-playing dog; Grace Forster, reality TV star of Doggie Moms; Greg Kleva, dog behavioral therapist, and Jay Prince, from Hal Prince Music and Entertainment who will be the event’s featured live auctioneer.

Heim praised the dedicated staff and the volunteers “who come to walk, play and train dogs in the heat, in rain and in snow because they know the animals need more attention than the staff can possibly provide.”

Heim, who began her affiliation with the humane society 14 years ago as a volunteer dog walker, said the cat volunteers give endless time fostering kittens and playing with cats to socialize them and prepare them for adoption.

“We hope to be able to do even more by expanding our trap/neuter/release cat program, by expanding our education programs, by providing in-house surgeries and anything else we can for the betterment of animals in the 17 communities we service and beyond,” she said.

Heim has two poodles and a cat, all adopted from the shelter.

Bill Spinelle, who has volunteered with the New Rochelle Humane Society for roughly a decade, was enthusiastic about the upcoming Centennial Celebration.

Spinelle, who has two adopted pets from the shelter, became a volunteer after retiring. He deciding that, although playing golf was fun, “it wasn’t enough.

“When I first started volunteering, there were very few programs—they have come a long way. The Centennial Celebration is showcasing where they’re coming from and where they are today, how far they’ve come and direction they’re going,” he said.

New Rochelle Humane Society’s Centennial Celebration tickets cost $100 per person. The ticket price includes dinner, wine and beer, live music and a live auction. Raffle and silent auction items may still be donated as well.

Click here to purchase tickets from New Rochelle Humane Society's Web site.