Marketing for a cause

Mar. 26—Cat By Cat Inc., a charity focused on community cats, is working towards acquiring grant funds through the Open Arms Challenge, and it's doing so with help from Lockport High School business teacher Michael Lepertine and his students.

Holly Edwards, owner of Lock City Books, had worked with the LHS business program on another Cat By Cat endeavor and reached out to Lepertine for another assist. Some space in Edwards' shop in the Bewley Building is set aside for reading to and playing with adoptable felines from Cat By Cat.

This time, Lepertine's class worked on creating a marketing campaign for the grant, which requires implementing a fundraiser and submitting a report on its success.

Sally Merritt-Braciak, founder of Cat By Cat, said the organization is all about "inclusivity, meaning we remove barriers to help people adopt pets and not exclude them from having one."

Cat By Cat's fundraiser is a month's worth of cat food drives taking place in five locations in the region: 8 Market St., Lockport; 28 Hoag Ave., Akron; 22 Nicholas Center, Tonawanda; 1304 West Ave., Medina; and 2600 Dodge Road, East Amherst.

The LHS business students are conducting a cat food drive and bake sale on Thursday. "All proceeds go to Cat By Cat Inc., to buy supplies and food for unfortunate cats," their flyer says. Donations from the community can be dropped off at the high school main office.

Bake sale coordinator Tessa Fraser, a sophomore who has two cats at home, took the lead in organizing the sale.

"I'm making everyone make something and bring it in," she said.

Hailey Shellman, a senior, designed the flyer for the in-school fundraiser.

"I made a poster using Canva and put the information of where to drop off food, and also about the (Lockport) farmer's market, where the food will be distributed," Shellman said.

According to Edwards, volunteers will fill bags with food and cat care supplies and distribute them at the Lockport Community Farmers Market, 210 Walnut St., on April 20.

"We're also going to make bags for social workers to take with them to families with pets," she said.

"We want people to be able to keep their pets, so we're also including information about low cost veterinarians in the area," Edwards added, citing the Better Together Pet Resource Center as a place that can help offset the expenses of having a pet.

According to the Open Arms Challenge website, a total of $510,000 will be awarded to successful grant applicants. The finalists are to be named in September.