SAN DIEGO — When a respected Ocean Beach artist died, his daughter knew right away how honor his memory. In this Zevely Zone, I start the week off with a feel-good follow-up.
A few weeks ago, we took you inside the home of Ocean Beach artist Stuart Glennon and showed you hundreds of his paintings and sculptures. Stuart passed away in December at the age of 93. His daughter Alison decided to honor her father's memory by selling his entire collection and donating the money to the Feral Cat Coalition. "100 percent will go to the Feral Cat Coalition. All of the money," said Alison.
She told me the art sale on March 18-19 was a success and her father's property was packed with people. "Everybody said that they saw it on Channel 8 on the Zevely Zone," said Alison.
She sold more than $7,000 of art then chipped in $5,000 of her own money to make a $12,000 donation to the cats. "We were totally surprised," said Audrey Stratton from the Feral Cat Coalition. Audrey says FCC is a small non-profit and that money will pay for eight spay and neuter clinics. How many cats is that? "I need to bust out my calculator," laughed Audrey.
A donation that big requires some serious math. "It's about 250 to 300 cats," said Audrey. Stuart Glennon was a cat lover and using his art to help animals them was a stroke of genius.
"I had never had the pleasure of meeting Stuart before, but I heard how much he loved the cats down at the river and cats in general and I truly feel that he would just be so honored to know that his legacy went on in this world to help cats live better lives here in San Diego," said Audrey.
Alison is selling five more paintings and matching every dollar raised. She wants to say this to San Diego, ""All of you guys thank you so much for doing this it means a lot to me my dad would have loved it. Thank you." Audrey then added a hug and said, "Thank you so much, we are so grateful."
The coalition estimates tens of thousands of cats are living in the wild in San Diego County. The non-profit organization spays and neuters wild cats and provides vaccinations along with dental care. The cats are humanely trapped. The mild-mannered cats are adopted by loving families. The animals that are too wild get returned to the same neighborhood where they were trapped. The Feral Cat Coalition is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the overpopulation of feral and abandoned cats through free, humane Trap-Neuter-Return. They have helped more than 62 thousand animals in the past thirty years.
The Feral Cat Coalition will raffle off the last five paintings. For more information click here. You can also call Alison if you have questions about more art. Her cell phone number is 619-518-1430.
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