More than $19,000 was raised during the inaugural Black Cat Ball benefiting the Street Cats Club Friday night. The event drew a crowd of about 100 people to the Emporia Granada Theatre for an upscale Halloween party.
Of the $19,435 raised, $13,060 goes directly into the Street Cats Club’s mission to help stray cats live safer, healthier lives by controlling the population through trap/neuter/return, providing support for colonies and their caregivers, and fostering sick/injured/orphaned cats and kittens.
Founder Victoria Partridge said the Black Cat Ball was created to be the organization’s signature fundraiser.
“We wanted it to be a little bit different than what a lot of nonprofits typically do,” she said. “I love what they do, but I just wanted something a little different that would stand out a little bit.”
The Black Cat Ball was born. Partridge said the concept was an “upscale Halloween party” featuring signature drinks, dancing, music and lots of fun. Many showed up in costumes and participated in a costume contest where the winner took home $100 and a trophy.
Haven Conrade’s alien costume, complete with a functioning UFO, earned the top prize.
Partridge said this fundraiser would be a vital component for helping stray, sick, injured and orphaned cats live long and healthy lives in Lyon County.
“Our program typically puts in about $30,000 a year into medical care costs because our foster program is reserved for sick, injured and orphaned stray cats,” she said. “Those cats, on average, take up more medical fees. The vast majority of the money we raise goes into that portion of our program, and if anyone were to look at our finances they would see that we are just writing big checks to the vets every single month.”
Partridge said without fundraising efforts it wouldn’t be possible to take on as many cases.
“We want to keep saying yes to those cats, no matter what their ailments are,” she said.
An exciting highlight of the evening came from a special supporter who recorded a message for guests. Jackson Galaxy, a well-known American cat behaviorist, YouTuber and former host of “My Cat From Hell,” recorded a video message for the Black Cat Ball where he praised the work the Street Cats Club is doing.
“We had the really nice opportunity to meet Jackson Galaxy at an event,” Partridge said. “[Co-director] Bailey Estes slipped him one of our ‘Spay and Neuter Your Effin’ Cat’ stickers and he said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, what is this?’ and they talked about it.”
Since then, Galaxy has become a staunch supporter of the organization. He even provided a signed copy of his book, “Total Cat Mojo,” which was used for a raffle Friday night.
“I absolutely love this organization for what they’re doing for Lyon County,” Galaxy said in the video, before reading off some of the successes the group has had just this year.
Partridge said the Street Cats Club remains busy, and is looking at completing close to 800 trap/neuter/returns in 2023.
“Last year in 2022, we were really excited. We celebrated topping off the year at 202 TNR cats,” she said. “This year we’ve already almost tripled that number. By the end of this year, we will be well into the 700 - 800s for TNR. We’ve also expanded in to Hartford and Chase County.”
For more information on the Street Cats Club, follow the group on social media or visit www.streetcatsclub.org.
“The vast majority of the money we raise goes into that portion of our program, and if anyone were to look at our finances they would see that we are just writing big checks to the vets every single month.” Victoria Partridge Street Cats Club founder.