Off-Roading Event Brings Trucks and Pups Together for Charity
SoCal Tacoma and 4Runner owners unite to celebrate their trucks while finding homes for pets in need.
Check a Venn diagram and you’ll doubtless see a big overlap between off-roaders and dog lovers. That overlap was beautifully demonstrated at a recent event for Toyota Tacoma and 4Runner-owning off-roaders in Redlands, California, which not only helped connect some pups in need with potential owners but also assisted in providing for their care in the meantime.
In cooperation with members of two local clubs, Tacoma Krew and 4RunnerKrew, the folks at Toyota of Redlands arranged a four-hour “Pups & Trucks” event at their dealership earlier this month. According to the Redlands Community News, around 100 trucks showed up not just to take part, see and be seen, but also to help raise money and publicity for a local animal shelter.
The event took place on Sunday, February 9th to support the local Redlands Animal Shelter, which as of a few days ago was reporting some 40 dogs and 35 cats in need of adoption. The shelter brought six of these — a couple of pit bulls, a pit/lab mix, two Chihuahuas and a husky/Akita mix — along to meet the crowds at the event.
Although none was adopted on the day, that wasn’t necessarily the only goal. Some of these dogs may still go on to be adopted by folks who showed interest in them at the event, or other animals from Redlands’ shelter may be adopted instead.
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And in the meantime, spending the day amongst a bunch of off-roading fans — many of whom brought their own dogs along as well — will have helped to socialize and entertain those animals currently having to lead a more isolated presence at the shelter. Given that some of them had already been waiting there for as long as five months, that was doubtless very welcome indeed.
A fair few other local businesses took part in the event. Ground Pounder Coffee was also present with a special coffee roast made for the event dubbed “Explorer Medium Roast”, and also in attendance were Beyond Wraps, Cilajet, Demello Offroad, Icon Vehicle Dynamics, Mountain Hatch, Overland Vehicle Systems, Rago Fabrication, Shovel-Tec, Tacoma Twins, Tactilian, Tembo Tusk and The Trail Medic.
As for the aforementioned charity raffle, it did pretty well. We don’t have a precise number of people who attended, although with a hundred vehicles in attendance some simple logic would suggest a number in the multiple hundreds. All things considered, then, the $620 taken in by the raffle — all of which went to Redlands Animal Shelter — seems like a pretty decent amount.
And that’s great because it sounds like this may become a regular, annual event. Kudos to all those who lent their time and energy both to helping share their enthusiasm for off-roading, and to help find new lives for pets in need!
Photos: Toyota of Redlands/Facebook;