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Read the letter to Garett from Betsy Henke,
President of Friends of Moonridge Zoo
Every year, Garett and his fans meet at the Moonridge Rescue Zoo in Big Bear,
California for a relaxed day of fun, mingling and helping raise money to care
for the animals there. In 2006, the zoo renamed the event "Sentinel Day"
in honor of the Sentinel fans who, in conjunction with Garett, put so much
energy into it's success.
As of June 2007, Garett and his fan base have raised $135,455 for the Moonridge Rescue Zoo. In 2007 alone, they raised $32,000 from the combination of the online auction, the special auction held at the event and the "adoptions" of the animals throughout "Sentinel Day".
When "The Sentinel" ended its four year run in 1999, Garett decided to take a couple of years off to work on his home, try a few experimental projects and recharge his artistic batteries. In 2001, Garett Maggart fans were thrilled to discover that he'd become a supporter of The Moonridge Animal Park in Big Bear, California. Even more exciting was the additional news announcement in August of 2001, that he would be a guest celebrity attending their Alpine Wildlife Celebration Fundraising Event on August 25, 2001.
The Moonridge Animal Park has been a mainstay of the Big Bear community since 1960. Their goal has been, from the beginning, to rescue injured or abandoned wild animals and whenever possible, return them to the wild when healthy. But many of their 'patients' were too badly injured to survive outside the safety of Moonridge and thus the zoo was born. Thanks to a 50 year lease, Moonridge continued to save, rehabilitate and house over 8,000 wild animals of Big Bear and the surrounding areas. But their lease expires in just four years, at which time they must have secured a new property at the estimated cost of $15 million. Moonridge had its work cut out for them.
The Alpine Wildlife Celebration was just the beginning of their fundraising events and for fans of Garett Maggart, it was an opportunity to not only show their support of Garett by helping to support Moonridge, but to give back to a community in need.
Fans from all over the world descended on the small city of Big Bear on August 25th and fell in love with the animal park. They worked hard to raise money in Garett's name and to raise an additional amount to support a beautiful wolf, Nova, chosen by Garett for adoption. In that first year, the goal was to raise $4,000 to support Nova for the coming year. The final amount raised was an estimated $5,000.
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In addition to Moonridge, Garett also supports The Motion Picture Industry Charitable Alliance.
He will once more be attending the event, scheduled for October 5-7, 2007.
In the past, Garett has served as one of the
celebrity "auctioneers" at their Lights, Camera, Auction events. In 2004 he
helped raise over $60,000 for The Canuk Place and Hollygrove, while in 2005, he
helped raise over $50,000 for Ronald McDonald House, British Columbia, and the
Westside Children's Center.
THe Motion Picture Industry Charitable Alliance was founded by, among others, Jon Cassar and Nigel Bennet and is quotd as being "…an entertainment industry-based non-profit organization that hosts charity auctions featuring items donated by studios, theatres, actors, directors, producers and crew members of popular movies, television series and stage productions. At these auctions, the fans of the shows are given the opportunity to collect special memorabilia while simultaneously generating funds for noteworthy causes. The selected charities benefit from both the generosity of the donations and from the enthusiasm and support of the fans. Each yearly event benefits one US and one Canadian charity, with different charities selected for each event."
For more information, please visit their website at http://www.mpica.org/
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