Byerly Foundation awards $500,000 grant to Humane Society
Darlington County Humane Society’s plan for new facility, from their website. CONTRIBUTED GRAPHIC
The Darlington County Humane Society has been awarded a $500,000 grant from Hartsville’s Byerly Foundation for their Raise the Woof Capital Campaign to raise $5 million to support a new indoor animal care facility and vision for a better tomorrow encompassing community education.
The Byerly Foundation, which was formed upon the sale of the former Byerly Hospital in 1995, is a private foundation making grants to nonprofit organizations and other eligible organizations that work on education, economic development and social needs in the greater Hartsville area.
The Board of Trustees awarded the $500,000 payable over two years beginning in 2022 as support of the strategy Darlington County Humane Society has to provide new educational opportunities for the citizens of Darlington County and K-12 students in the Pee Dee Region.
Linda Weatherford, chair of The Byerly Foundation, said, “The Byerly Foundation Board was impressed with the in-depth analysis and planning that the Darlington County Humane Society has put into this major project.
“We saw from their grant request the major impact a solution of this magnitude can have for not only the abandoned pets but for our community at large. The board understands this is a multipronged project and we are convinced that when completed it will have significant impacts on both the quality of life and economic development of our greater Hartsville area.”
Annually, more than 2,998 animals are housed at Darlington County Humane Society in hazardous environments that lack critical infrastructure for the well-being of animals housed or community involvement needed to decrease these numbers through adoption and education.
“We get to share exciting news, news where the community is and will continue to come together to raise funds to build the new tomorrow for DCHS,” said Becky Skipper, co-chair of the Raise the Woof Campaign.
“The untold story is the one of the DCHS volunteer base and the Board of Governors who day in, day out do an unexplainable job for our community. Twenty-five years ago, a group of five citizens stepped in and founded the Darlington County Humane Society and today the Raise the Woof Campaign makes their dream a reality.”
The mission of the Raise the Woof Capital Campaign is to secure $5 million to build a new animal care and community facility and design and implement Pillars for Progress for Darlington County Humane Society. The new facility is designed to be humane, welcoming, and cost-efficient to build and to run. It will be 13,000 square feet and situated on the 6-acre parcel so that other commercial development and DCHS revenue streams can be installed in the future.
“With this grant from The Byerly Foundation, the Raise the Woof Campaign is currently funded at $1.1 million,” said Lauri McLeland, co-chair of capital campaign. “We intend to fully fund the campaign at $5 million in 2022 and break ground early 2023 with completion later in the year.”
To learn more about the Raise the Woof Campaign or find out how you can become involved, you may contact the committee at capital_campaign@darlingtonhumane.org.
