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(ARCHIVE PHOTO | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Kris Rotonda, of the Jordan’s Way animal charity, pulls an 18-wheeler truck in 2024 around the Young County Arena parking lot over in an effort to raise money to get the Humane Society of Young County a new transport vehicle.
The Humane Society of Young County will host their largest fundraiser of the year with the Jordan’s Way livestream event next week.
This will mark the third time HSYC has partnered with Jordan's Way running a fundraising event. This year’s event will start at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10.
The shelter will continue to look for volunteers and participants for the event leading up to it, however they are currently expecting around 50 volunteers to be in attendance.
As for what the event entails, HSYC Board President Heather Allen said it is a bit of a wildcard.
“The way we like to describe the Jordan’s Way event is a Nickelodeon episode, with a touch of Fear Factor meets a Jerry Lewis telethon,” Allen said.
Each of the participants at the event will compete in live challenges for the public’s enjoyment, all with the goal of gaining donations to help funding for the shelter.
Some of these challenges include a tortilla slap challenge, slime bucket challenge, “hose down” challenge, pie to the face challenge and “Fear Factor” type challenges which Allen said the shelter likes to keep a mystery up until the start of the event.
The shelter’s previous Jordan’s Way event, which was held in April 2024, raised around $12,000. This year, Allen is hoping the event can raise around $40,000.
The shelter hopes to use this money to fund their 'Niko’s Nook' quarantine section of the shelter.
“The building is built, the floor has been done, we just have to get the kennels for it,” Allen said.
The partnership between Jordan’s Way and the humane society started during their first organized event in 2022.
Jordan's Way posted on social media that they were visiting Texas and asked supporters to name some of their favorite animal shelters to visit for their livestream events.
HSYC was named as one of the shelters to visit and after that Allen said the rest was history.
The Jordan’s Way foundation was started by Kris Rotunda, after his dog Jordan passed away. Rotunda said on the event website that Jordan spent the first three and half years of her life neglected in a shelter.
This inspired him to create the foundation, where Rotunda travels across 50 states promoting animal shelters through his live stream events in order to get the unnoticed noticed.
While this event will be the biggest going on in Graham for the humane society it will not be their last event with Jordan’s Way this year.
The shelter also entered itself into the first ever Jordan’s Way Bowl in Wichita Falls which takes place from 5-9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15.
At that event, the shelter will compete against over 90 other animal shelters from across the country in the organization's biggest livestreaming event yet.
For more information about the fundraiser or the shelter and its local efforts, visit the HSYC Facebook page or their website at humanesociety-yc.org.
