Hollywood Pet Salon to host Dec. 8 event
By Jennifer Ruth
Staff Writer
HOULTON — What better way to get into the spirit of giving than by giving locally to an organization that is desperately in need.
That describes the Houlton Humane Society animal shelter. Currently, the shelter is busting at the seams with abandoned and unwanted pets. Society organizers have even opened the doors to its old shelter to house the overflow of cats coming in. Regardless of the numbers, volunteers and organizers all agree that help is needed and they hope that people take the opportunity to give this holiday season.
The best place to start doing that will on Saturday, Dec. 8 at the Hollywood Pet Salon. Lorraine Monfils owns and operates the establishment and she’s got the town helping her in kicking off this year’s Christmas shelter campaign — “Home for the Holidays.” From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Houlton’s Mechanic Street will look more like a scene from winter wonderland.
“I have got a permit to shut down Mechanic Street the length of my salon,” explained Monfils. “We’re going to set up a winter wonderland for the kids and we’re going to sell Christmas trees and wreaths.”
They will also have two or three sets of Christmas carolers and The Vault has opened its doors to the Hollywood Pet Salon so that they can serve a buffet lunch. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. they will serve soup and sandwiches and dessert and hot cocoa for $8 per person. There will also be pictures with Santa Claus, as well as a candy sale, a bake sale and a craft sale.
“We’re going to make it a little bigger this year,” said Monfils. “We’re going to set up the back room for the animal shelter to do adoptions. We’ll have it full of cats and maybe some dogs. We’re hoping to get the word out there to people so they know what’s happening in advance and maybe they’ll come buy a tree from us and support the shelter.
“All of the proceeds go to the animal shelter,” she said.
Monfils has hosted the event for the past couple of years and she said every bit of help is needed for the shelter’s ongoing needs. She said they’re hoping to raise a lot of money for the animals and their vet expenses.
“It’s also just to get everybody in the Christmas spirit and I know when we did Dog Days, a lot of the merchants said that we brought a lot of traffic to downtown Houlton for them so we’re hoping to do the same thing again,” she explained. “We also have pledge forms that I delivered to the schools to help get the kids involved in raising money and the one child that raises the most money will get a giant stocking full of toys.”
Everything happens on Saturday, Dec. 8 and the winner of the pledge sheets will be announced on that day.
