On the second Thursday of the month through the summer, classic car owners and enthusiasts would gather at Gasoline Alley Classics (24 N Main) to check out the cars, talk with the owners, and grab a hot dog from the Chuck-It Axe Co. Hot Dog Cart. For the final outing of the season, which happened on October 12th, Chuck-It wanted to add something extra to the event. For that, they called the Sapulpa Animal Shelter.
Since starting its hot dog cart over a year ago, Chuck-It has endorsed a policy of giving a portion of every hot dog purchased back to an animal shelter or rescue of some kind. This time, they wanted to end the Cruise-In in style with a donation to the Sapulpa Animal Shelter.
Amanda Stephens, co-owner of Chuck-It Axe Co., said the hot dog vendor brought up the idea of having a “Cruise In for a Cause” event to go along with their “Every Dog Feeds a Dog” program, and that Gasoline Alley owners Michael and Teresa Jones “loved the idea.” But she says she can’t take full credit for the success of the event. “It was a collaborated effort with Chuck-It and Gasoline Alley Classics,” she said.
Hot on the heels of the successful State Fair Adoption Special event—where the shelter gave $0 adoptions for the duration of the county and state fairs—the shelter was eager to participate and brought a brown husky named General to draw in even more visitors.
As word got out about what was going on, people began bringing bags and cans of dog food and kitty litter, all of which went to the Sapulpa Animal Shelter. The total weight of the supplies amounted to over 348lbs, and when combined with the financial donations they had also received, would likely exceed 400lbs of food and litter for the shelter.
Michael Jones told Sapulpa Times that people were donating money, even if they didn’t live locally. “I had a couple come in from Arizona, and they heard what we were doing, and said ‘we don’t have dog food, but here’s some money to buy some for us.’ We had several people who gave financially,” he said.
Though it was the first collaborative event Chuck-It had orchestrated, it was such a success that the two businesses are already talking about doing another one next year when the Cruise-In events start up again.
Both businesses said they “would love to say thank you to our community, the Sapulpa Animal Shelter, and everyone who donated to this cause and made it a successful event.”
