Murphy – Lisa Pursell knew exactly what she wanted from the Valley River Humane Society trivia night fundraiser on Nov. 24 at Chevelles.
“We are hoping for money, as much money as we can raise,” she said.
As director at large for the society, Pursell is intimately knowledgeable about the needs and challenges of their program. The society serves Cherokee, Clay and Graham counties by providing a “no-kill” animal shelter in Marble.
Kirsty Waller and her team at the shelter has “placed 13,000 animals in the past five years.” Pursell reported proudly. “But it costs half a million dollars a year to run the program,” which includes food, shelter and veterinarian visits for each animal.
About 60 people cavorted at Chevelles to play trivia to benefit the humane society. Debbi Mills and Ray Killian joined the fun with their team Strangers at the Bar, named for how the two of them met years ago.
Mills joked, “We don’t have many correct answers,” but when pressed added, “Why keep playing if you keep losing?”
Becky and Brian Costello named their team Rueben, after a cat they adopted from the shelter. Pat and John Mattox rounded out the team, with Pat saying she felt confident they would win.
“We are a seasoned team and have been playing for years,” she said.
Adam DeLange headed to Chevelles with his daughter, Ashley, to have a nice dinner when they discovered the entire front portion of the bar filled with happy, raucous people. They were visiting Murphy from Atlanta and didn’t want to miss out on the fun, so they signed up as Wolfpack with DeLange saying, “It’s a nickname we use for our family.”
The Murphy Rotary Club team experienced some playful infighting when Janet Ramsey and friend Terrisa Carringer discovered their team chose the name All Our Troubles despite their very clear directions to call themselves The Enemas.
In the end, after a lovely evening of libation and laughter, Team Ridgerunners won a $50 Visa gift card and the society raised $1,493 to help tend to the animals in their care.