Tour For Heroes Completes Coast-To-Coast Trek

Starting the first week of February and ending last week, James Gleason, the off-site field team leader of North Shore Animal League America, drove across the country and back. He logged 5,000 miles and gave away more than 60,000 pounds of dog and cat food, during the Purina ONE® Tour For Heroes, a national initiative distributing pet food at shelters to help animals in need.

The first Purina ONE® Tour For Heroes, which started and ended here in Port Washington, blazed through 11 cities in California, Louisiana, Arizona and Texas. Traveling across the country and back in the Purina ONE® mobile unit, Gleason made stops at local animal shelters where they set up temporary food banks and adoption events and gave away a free bag of Purina ONE® pet food to anyone interested. According to the Tour For Heroes blog, their mission was to "Feed, Share, Save — feeding pets, sharing hope, saving lives."

"Purina ONE® Tour For Heroes really was designed to raise awareness and to thank pet lovers for saving a life and for feeding their pet healthy food," said Deveral Lynn, vice president of communications for North Shore Animal League America. "We've had a long standing relationship with Purina ONE® and we are proud of their generosity in giving back to communities like this across the country."

Close to 11,000 eight-pound bags of pet food were distributed, each one feeding a medium-sized dog or the average cat for about a month, adding up to 63,000 pounds of pet food given away between Feb. 3 and March 5.

Tour For Heroes, a partnership between the American Mutt-i-greesTM Club, Purina ONE® and Martha Stewart, promotes shelter adoptions and good nutrition for pets, especially during times of economic hardship. They all combined efforts to give back, touting pet owners as heroes in caring for their pets no matter what the circumstances.

Two hundred pets were adopted during the Purina ONE® Tour For Heroes. One of those 200 pets went home with Jason Sinaly, a 26-year-old from Valley Stream who came to the shelter for the event last Friday.

"Our 12-year-old Newfoundland, Bosco, died of cancer last month and my grandmother, Rosalynd, and I felt ready to get another dog today," Sinaly said. "And Thunder needed a home." Thunder is the a four-month-old Bernese Mountain Dog that left the shelter with a new family.

Pamela Hill, manager of the Purina ONE® Hope Network, which works with 38 shelters across the country including Port Washington's North Shore Animal League America, said it's people like Sinaly and dogs like Thunder that this tour was all about.

"It's Purina ONE's way to help pets in need and to raise awareness of adoptable pets while keeping them looking and feeling their best," Hill said.

If local residents were unable to take part in the Tour For Heroes, there are ways to help virtually by visiting MarthaStewart.com/pet-adoption until March 31. After finding an adoptable pet, anyone can click to share that pet's profile with your Facebook friends. Each time this is done, Purina ONE® will donate $1 worth of pet food to food banks across the country to help feed pets in need. If enough people help, this will add up to $50,000 worth of pet food.

The Tour For Heroes Web site said, "You'll be doing your part to publicize these animals' urgent need to find a loving home, and help keep other needy pets in their homes and out of a shelter."

North Shore Animal League America, which was the lead shelter on this tour, typically handles 250 dog and 100 cat adoptions per week, which adds up to 18,000 animal adoptions annually within the Tri-state area.

Many adopters often return to the shelter for many of their pet care needs. Cecelia McCann of Glenwood Landing visited during the pet food distribution with her eight-month-old Shepherd mix named Georgie that she adopted in October. "She's a great dog," McCann said. "We're so happy to have her."