The West Columbia Gorge Humane Society (WCGHS) usually encourages community members to “hike on the dike” for its annual spring fundraising event, but this year, the organization is asking people to “hike where they like.”
The WCGHS’ Hike on the Dike 5K Walk and Festival has moved to a virtual format because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but is still attracting plenty of support — and financial donations — from local animal enthusiasts.
“We’re trying different things to get people engaged and bring value to them in different ways,” said WCGHS executive director Megan Dennis. “It’s so different this year because we obviously couldn’t have a live event, and a lot of people were disappointed, but we’re trying to figure out different ways to connect with people in a meaningful way and make it fun.”
Fundraising activities began May 16, and will conclude on June 30.
“When (the pandemic) first hit us, we took a step back and said, ‘We don’t know what this is going to look like, so let’s assume that we’ll have to go virtual so that we’ll have some plan in place in case we need one,'” said WCGHS development manager Peggy DiPrima. “We kind of just started opening our eyes and ears to what other people were doing. We had just purchased an online peer-to-peer fundraising platform, and we were planning on using that for ‘Hike on the Dike’ anyway, so we just said, ‘Oh my gosh, we better jump into this with both feet and really learn this platform and learn how to do online fundraising in a meaningful way.’ So we did.”
To participate, people can make a donation to the WCGHS; request financial contributions from friends and family members to earn prizes; or submit photographs from their animal-walking outings to enter into a drawing for a gift basket.