May 12, 2004
Happy Tails' furry fund-raiser
Cherryland Humane Society benefit will auction off 22 fiberglass cats or dogs decorated by artists
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Tapping the creative potential of area artists young and old will provide some direct help to stray or abandoned cats and dogs.
The "Happy Tails to You" fund-raiser features 22 fiberglass cats or dogs decorated by area artists or art students. These statues will be auctioned off at the fundraising event on September 18 at The Barns as a fund-raiser for the Cherryland Humane Society. In the interim, all the finished pieces will be displayed around town all summer, said Mike Cherry, executive director of the Cherryland Humane Society. Individual artists as well as school art classes will be participating.
"There's 22 that were delivered to artists, that were spoken for," said Cherry, noting that artists responded positively to the opportunity with some even contacting him. "If there's some demand for more, we could do that."
The money raised by the "Happy Tails to You" is part of a capital campaign to retire the mortgage on the society's new facility. Built in 2002, the site on Ahlberg Road has 14,000 square feet, more than six times the previous structure.
Cherry said the organization was inspired by a similar project using decorated cows in Chicago and pigs in Cincinnati. Closer to home, last year's event that auctioned off decorated fiberglass fish for the Petoskey Chapter of the American Red Cross provided the final impetus.
"We actually had gone up to that event and we thought we could do this," Cherry recalled. "They really did a nice job and had some real talented artists."
Students at Traverse City East Junior High's eighth and ninth grade pottery and sculpture class completed their project already, giving it to Cherry last Wednesday. The students each proposed a design for their cat, the only statue available on teacher Mary Sawyer's time table. The EJH cat was the first delivered and the first returned to the Cherryland Humane Society.
"The cat was the only one we could get early so we wouldn't be rushed at the end of the year," Sawyer noted.
Sawyer then chose five or six designs from the group, choosing those that would work in the stained glass mosaic they wanted. Students then voted in a design by Nick Fox.
"I just made the curves of color follow the body," said Fox, a ninth-grade student. "You couldn't make any straight lines because the cat was curved."
The students used glass donated by Twin Bay Glass as well as blue and yellow mosaic tiles they made themselves.
"We used slabs of clay, glazed them and when they got out of the kiln, we smashed them," recalled Fox.
Working in teams of three every day for weeks, the students glued the tiles on one by one, following the design. When they grouted their cat statue using black grout, some were worried it was too dark. Sawyer acknowledged that the dark grout dampened the vibrancy of the colored tiles. but the finished project brightened up after sealing.
"To be honest, I didn't think it would turn out that good but it turned out better than I thought," said Emily Lelandais, an eighth-grade student in the class.