City of Bloomington Animal Shelter Takes on 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge Qualifying Heat

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2012

For more information, please contact:
Laurie Ringquist, Director, Animal Care and Control, City of Bloomington, 349.3870, ringquil@bloomington.in.gov

[[image:11753]|http://www.votetosavelives.org]

City of Bloomington Animal Shelter Takes on 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge Qualifying Heat

Bloomington, IN - The City of Bloomington Animal Shelter will be a participant in the Qualifying Heat of the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge, beginning at noon on Thursday, April 5, 2012. The Animal Shelter is competing for a chance at more than $500,000 in grant funding, including a grand prize of $100,000.

The 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge is a nationwide competition for animal shelters (and their communities) aimed at getting more animals adopted or returned to their owners than ever before. This first phase is the Qualifying Heat where registered shelters compete to accumulate the most online votes from their supporters. The 50 shelters with the most votes become the official contestants for the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge.

"We are very excited about engaging our community to vote us into the Challenge," said Laurie Ringquist, Director of the City of Bloomington Animal Shelter. "The Challenge is a wonderful opportunity for us to be creative about saving even more lives by connecting our amazing cats and dogs with the right families. Our staff and volunteers are ready, if the community will just vote us in."

Supporters can help by voting online at [http://www.votetosavelives.org] or by following the voting link on our [shelter homepage|animalshelter]. Voting begins at noon on Thursday, April 5 and continues through midnight on Monday, April 16, 2012. Supporters can vote once per day and will receive an email after the first time they vote. They must reply to confirm the email address in order for their votes to count.

In order to be competitive against much larger metropolitan areas, the Bloomington Animal Shelter will need to enlist the help of as many community organizations and businesses as possible in order to "get out the vote." If your business or organization would be willing to include our link on your website or facebook page or to have posters in your place of business, please contact Laurie Ringquist at 812-349-3870 or ringquil@bloomington.in.gov.

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