The Run for the Rescues 5K is coming to Dahlonega later this month, and Friends of Lumpkin County Shelter Animals volunteer and event organizer Diana Dunetz is hoping the brand new event will make a real difference in the lives of local animals.
Proceeds from the dog-friendly race will help fund vital services at the Lumpkin County Animal Shelter, including life-saving medical treatments, spay/neuter programs and daily care for shelter animals waiting to find their forever homes. There will also be on-site adoptions the day of the event.
“The Lumpkin County Animal Shelter is a vital part of our community. Manager Wayne Marshall and the staff members give their all to provide love, hope and a bright future to our neediest four-legged community members,” Dunetz told The Nugget.
Run for the Rescues will take place on Saturday, November 15 at 9 a.m., with registration beginning at 8 a.m. The race looks to follow in the footsteps of popular fleet-footed fundraisers such as the Connectability 5K, the Wimpy Mile Run and the Gold Rush 5K.
In fact, Dunetz borrowed the blueprint for her fundraiser from another popular race.
“What we actually did is we hijacked the route, with permission, of the Sheriff’s Firecracker 5K. So it’s the exact same route. It starts and ends at the Visitor’s Center,” Dunetz said.
HEART FOR HELPING
Dunetz and her husband Rodney are relatively new to the community. This is their second season in Dahlonega; the couple spends winters at their second home in Delray Beach, Fla.
Dunetz earned her undergraduate degree in English and was a freelance writer for various local, regional and national magazines.
She has always been a fan of animals and wrote for popular pet magazines like Dog Fancy and Natural Dog before pivoting to a 12-year career in public relations.
She said her awareness of the plight of rescue animals really began on January 6, 2002, when she adopted her dog, Chase, from the local Humane Society in Boca Raton, Fla.
“He was about two years old when I adopted him,” Dunetz recalled. “He was with me for 16-and-a-half years. He was a German Shepherd mix and probably lived until about 18-and-a-half, 19 years old. He was never sick a day in his life. I was very lucky.”
DARING RESCUE
Chase passed away on June 30, 2018. In June of 2019, Dunetz received an email from an animal rescue organization called Cuddly.
“Cuddly kind of connects small shelters worldwide with an email list. We’ve put some of our animals on Cuddly. So you might get an email from a shelter anywhere saying ‘Hey, this is really an urgent case. Can you donate a few bucks?’”
Dunetz got a notice about a dog named “Moo” who had been severely abused as a puppy.
“He had such horrible mange, his eyes were swollen shut. They had tied him to burn in the sun,” she said.
“I said ‘This is the dog.’ And I kind of assumed he was somewhere in the U.S. Then I learned he was in Da Nang, Vietnam,” Dunetz said.
She inquired if there would be any way to transport the canine to the U.S., but was told it would be dependent on a Vietnamese host taking Moo in until they could fly over.
“It’s kind of nebulous as to when this is going to occur. I said ‘I don’t want to wait for this scenario,’” Dunetz said.
Fortunately, a veterinarian in Saigon was able to fly Moo out of Da Nang, pick him up, and keep him at his clinic until he received needed medical care and vaccinations.
From there, the globetrotting pooch flew Lufthansa airlines from Saigon to Bangkok, from Bangkok to Frankfurt, and, finally, from Germany to a customs broker in Miami.
Fortunately, Moo “immediately knew he was home” when he arrived at the Dunetz residence on September 16, 2019.
Amazingly, after his health was restored, Moo ended up bearing an eerie resemblance to her first dog.
“He ended up looking just like my dog Chase, only Chase was like 55 pounds and Moo is like 35 pounds. Sometimes there are pictures of them and I can’t tell the difference. So I feel like Chase sent him over and it was meant to be,” she said.
Dunetz said she never set out to adopt an animal outside of the country, but through the arduous process has learned that there are people like the veterinarian in Saigon “doing good stuff all over the world that we just don’t hear about.”
COMMUNITY-MINDED
When Dunetz joined the Dahlonega community, she knew she wanted to get involved in animal-related advocacy.
“At first, I was concerned about whether I wanted to become involved with a county shelter. It depends on the county, and it depends on how it’s run. I know in Florida there are a lot of very sad things that happen at the county shelters, like high kill rates … But I went to a fundraising “Garden Party” that was hosted by one of the people from the Friends [group] and we started talking, and I started learning more about the Lumpkin County Shelter,” Dunetz said.
She took the step of meeting Marshall for herself, and was impressed with the manager’s compassionate demeanor and the shelter’s certification as a “no-kill” facility.
“They do everything they can … And I thought ‘Wow, this is really a special place and this is where I want to become involved,’” she said.
Dunetz and Friends President Savana Borchers planned Run for the Rescues for November 15 “because so much goes on in October in Dahlonega, and we want people to be able to run with their dogs and it not be hot.”
She said the focus is not just on raising money for the shelter, but also raising awareness.
“I still think a lot more people need to know about the good work that’s being done at the shelter,” Dunetz said.
While Dunetz hopes her 5K will become an annual fundraising staple for the shelter, she is keeping the race “purposefully focused this year.”
“People had asked ‘Do you want food trucks?’ and this and that, but we really want to focus on not biting off more than we can chew our first year … And of course it will enable us to have information about the shelter, and they can see the types of dogs and cats that they have. And it allows them to bring their own leashed dog to hopefully have a good time,” she concluded.
For more information or to register for the race, please visit runsignup.com/Race/GA/Dahlonega/RunForTheRescues5K