The Aggieland Humane Society held its eighth annual Wiener Fest on Saturday, drawing hundreds of humans and their four-legged friends of every shape and size. The event included costume contests, live music, pet accessory and product vendors, a dog house silent auction, and of course, the traditional wiener dog races.
The event is based on fun and games, but it has a far deeper impact after the fact.
“[Wiener Fest] is the largest fundraiser for the Aggieland Humane Society each year,” said Molly Georgiades, committee leader and Volunteer Aggieland Humane Society board member. “ All the money raised here from race entries to donations all goes back to Aggieland Humane.”
Each year, the event planners also work to establish deeper connections between the humane society and the surrounding community.
“It gives us an opportunity to tell people about our mission and what we do,” Georgiades said. “We just really appreciate the support of both A&M and the Bryan-College Station community.”
Many other local pet-based businesses set up booths for visitors to learn more about their products or services.
“It gives all of these other groups, such as rescue groups and shelters, an opportunity as well,” Georgiades said. “We have a captive audience for our vendors to get out information about what they do.”
Nate Keiser, psychology graduate student, said he came back after enjoying his time last year.
“I definitely think it supports a great cause,” Keiser said. “We came out last year, but we didn’t have dogs then. We’ve since gotten dogs so we wanted to take them out and just to greet other dogs. There’s a lot of people here and hopefully the students and everyone else involved is donating to the cause.”
Georgiades said the event has drawn the support of many volunteers, including students.
“We use over 300 volunteers for this event and probably about 95 percent of them are Aggies,” Georgiades said. “They started Thursday afternoon when we were setting up, and all the way through Friday and [Saturday]. So we would not be able to do this event without our Aggies.”