Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Fitzburgh.
Brian, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am a real estate broker and I’m an animal lover (or maybe a crazy cat guy currently with four cats!) and for the past four years, I’ve been hosting and annual super bowl party for my real estate clients… I really go all out with stilt walkers, jugglers, live band, catered food, pony rides, open bar and on and on… The first year I also had a petting zoo but on the second year I decided to swap out the petting zoo and bring in a few rescue groups with adoptable doggies and kitties with the hopes of getting at least one doggie or kittie adopted and to my pleasant surprise we had four pets find a forever home that day… That got me to thinking, instead of party with only my small group of real estate clients, what if we created a big party and invited the entire community to attend and that’s when we created “Glassell Bark and Meow” and “Eagle Rock Bark and Meow” events…
I live in the community of Glassell Park so, of course, we call our event “Glassell Bark” and we also host another event in the community of Eagle Rock and call that event “Eagle Rock Bark”… NOTE: the official name includes “and Meow” because we cannot forget the kitties but to be honest, it’s the dog owners who really come out and make the party great! When I am inviting someone to attend, here’s my line: “It’s a party for your dog… But you can come too 🙂 ” It turns out that community members REALLY love a party for their dog and we just finished our 3rd Annual Glassell Bark and Eagle Rock Bark events and about 5,500 people attended the most recent 3rd Annual Eagle Rock Bark and Meow on Sunday, October 27th, 2019 and there were a combined total of adoptions and foster volunteers at a record 144 which means that 144 furry little creatures will no longer be homeless 🙂 We really try to make our events a combination of block party and rescue adoption and we do our best to make the party super fun!
At the last Eagle Rock Bark we had the trick-or-treat village with free candy for the kids, pumpkin patch with pumpkin decorating and other kids activities… We had Piper Madison (local singer/songwriter) perform live music along with two other local artists Tom Bishel and Paul Perry, we also had a classic car show and a scavenger hunt that included 65 fun station challenges including the “Shake Your Booty” challenge, the OMG Whoopie-Cushion challenge, rub-a-dub-dub doggie in a tub, doggie yoga, hot dog doggie, tail-wag challenge and sooooo much more… AND we also had the classics: Human Barking Contest, Doggie Costume Parade and the Watermelon Eating Contest Where YOU Compete Against Your Own DOG! Lol 🙂
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Amazingly, the road has been pretty smooth… It’s sort of amazing… When we talk to people about saving rescue pets, something magical happens… People drop their guard, people open up and people are willing to help… I’d say that the struggles have mainly been the shear mountain of work and effort that has been required to bring this mission from an idea and turn that into an existing non-profit organization with our RErescue.org mission to get other realtors involved and our local community Bark and Meow events and now moving into the next phase of bigger city-wide and then to a national level with big stadium events… It’s really exciting for us 🙂
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about RErescue – Real Estate Agents to the Rescue – what should we know?
Growing up, I have always been into many things… Many different sports and outdoor activities, got my pilots license when I was 18, lived in Paris for about nine months and always, I have been an animal lover… Much to my mother’s horror, I was the one that brought home the baby bird that had fallen out of the nest, or the lost kitten/cat/dog/bunnie/turtle you name it… I would even use my bare hand to scoop out bees that had fallen into our family swimming pool and then hold them in my hand while I would nurse them back to health with drops of juice in my hand- much to the surprise of my three older brothers and younger sister, I never once got stung 🙂 Other than that I have always been a driven and curious person with a strong desire to build and invent things… I hold a number or US patents and trademarks and love the whole concept of having an idea for something that exists only in my mind and then, step by step, taking action to get that idea out of my head and bringing it to life through action and effort (and money) so that something new exists in the universe that can have a positive impact on people’s lives AND also can have a positive impact on the lives of homeless animals… I see the work to create RErescue.org and our campaign to raise awareness that “fostering saves rescue pets” to be a natural continuation of my nature… This is, by far, the best creation that I have been involved in 🙂 I am so grateful to be on the current path that my team is on 🙂
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
What I am most proud of is the dedication of my team member, Cathie Wang… What she has done to bring this idea into reality is nothing short inspirational… She has worked soooo hard and created soooo much from our logos and websites to our marketing materials and SOOOO much more… I refer to what she does as “WANG POWER” and I am so grateful to be on this journey with someone so capable and so dedicated and such a joy to work with… BIG THANK YOU TO CATHIE WANG 🙂
Pricing:
- The annual membership fee for RErescue.org members is $250 per year
Contact Info:
- Website: www.RErescue.org
- Phone: 8185719712
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rerescuepet/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RErescuePET/
Image Credit:
https://www.13914images.com/
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