Cocktails For Canines: Second City Rescue, Second Chances!

Syya Yasotornrat (: 00:06

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Syya Yasotornrat (: 00:26

Well, hello, hello, hello, everybody. Welcome to the appeal. My name is Chris Malzouski alongside me is my wonderful friend and producer, Ms. Syya Yasotornrat -Torat with Brilliant Beam Media Productions. Syya, I am wearing my cool rock star glasses today, not only because of that amazing introduction you created for today's show, but today is the solar eclipse. And I know you're pretty keen on getting out there and seeing that yourself. I'm not going to lie to you, my friend. I am like looking out my window.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 00:58

Do you got your glasses like I do? I do. And I wish you had told me I would have run downstairs to grab it. But no, you guys, I'm in Dallas. I'm under totality and it's been overcast all morning. It was perfectly sunny yesterday, all overcast. And now I just saw some sunlight, you guys. So fingers and toes, everyone line up the universe. Let me just tell you. All right. Keep them crossed for you. So, you know, I in Illinois, we have some good coverage, I believe. And, uh,

pick up my kids a little early and we're gonna go out to a park and watch the eclipse together. But, you know, us humans are excited and we're gonna talk all things dogs today. But before we get doing that, Syya, I just wanted to say thank you for all your hard work in helping me get this show put together. For those that don't know, I've gotten to know Syya through Connections on LinkedIn, which is an amazing platform and through my work with the Walking Tall movement, which isn't going anywhere for those that are kind of curious and wondering.

but this is just a different side of me myself. I enjoy working with charities, raising money, creating awareness. And so that's what we're here to do with The Appeal. So see, I just wanted to say thank you so much for believing in me and all you've done. Thank you very much. And it's been such a pleasure. I'm so excited for The Appeal. Kick some booty, my friend. Let's rock and roll. All right, let's do it. So without further ado, it's my pleasure to bring on Ms. Christina Morrison, our first ever guest on The Appeal.

Christina is with the Second City Canine Rescue in my hometown of Palatine, Illinois. And we'll get to that a little bit later. But I'm so excited to be able to work with you, Christina, this coming week for cocktails for canines. We'll get into that a little bit later also. But welcome to the show. And if you don't mind, tell the viewers a little bit about yourself. Oh, thanks so much, Chris. So I live in the western suburbs of Chicago, so just a little bit south of you. This is my second career.

working for dog rescue as a full -time job. I was an attorney and this is a lot more fun. I love my job. I love working with the puppies and the dogs and just working with people who are wanting to do good every day and make this world a better place. Couldn't ask for anything better. Yeah, no, I have a dog myself and I know many of those watching and listening.

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have a deep affection for their canine friends and just to know the joy that dogs bring into folks' lives. It's so inspiring, but most importantly, the work that you folks do with Second City and giving dogs second chances at bettering their own lives is just so commendable and so needed in the world. And tell us a little bit about Second City and all the work that you guys do. Oh, yeah, thanks so much. So Second City Canine Rescue was founded in 2011.

We are considered a private no kill rescue. We take dogs locally from Chicago Animal Care and Control, Anti -Cruelty Society, DuPage County Animal Control, and all the way as far as Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, we'll bring those dogs up to the Chicago area, because those rural areas are just more populated. They don't have the spay and neuter programs that we do up here. And so they're just overflowing with dogs at all times.

So we bring them up to the Chicago area, find them amazing homes. So we love that we're able to rescue local dogs and dogs even from further away. Yeah. And tell us a little bit about the process, right? What's the adoption process like? How do you vet prospective new owners, you know, things like that? I'm sure, you know, those listening want to hear how they maybe can get a dog themselves. Yeah. So we create relationships with our rescue partners. And so,

we trust them, you know, they're going to take good care of the dogs in Kentucky and Tennessee and wherever we're pulling them from until we send our transport van to pick them up. And I got to tell you, the transport van was a game changer for our rescue. It allows us to develop relationships with rescues that either don't have the capacity to bring the dogs up to the Chicago area themselves, or allows, it allows us to make relationships with rescues that are.

further away. So there's some rescues where we'll meet in Louisville, Kentucky. So they'll come up to Louisville, we'll go down to Louisville, and then it just makes the transport easier for the people involved and nobody's driving 24 hours round trip. So the dogs, so our partner rescues send us a picture, details of the dogs, and then we coordinate transport, getting them onto our transport van coming up to Second City Canine Rescue.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 05:37

We have our veterinarians look them over when they first arrive, kind of get an idea of what they're gonna need, make sure they're up on vaccines. If they need to be spayed or neutered, we make that appointment at that time. And then Second City Canine Rescue does something that is unique and I have never heard of, and I've been involved in the rescue community since 2009. We send all adult dogs to a foster home and only puppies stay at our adoption center.

And that does two awesome things. #1 one, the volunteers who sign up to come volunteer at the adoption center, they get to play with puppies. And that really helps. It makes people volunteer for a really long time. Sign up, come play with puppies for an hour. I mean, who doesn't want to do that? So that's one of the things. And then the puppies are in and out. They're only, you know, they're there for two, maybe three weeks. You know, they come and go very quickly because everybody wants a puppy.

And so, you know, the puppies aren't sitting at the adoption center for any length of time. And then for the adult dogs, they're in a foster home, they're more comfortable, it's quieter, they're not feeling the kennel stress, they're not locked in a kennel, you know, except for the three walks a day, you know, that typically happens in a kennel setting. And then we can also tell our potential adopters more about the dog, you know, what are their habits, you know, good and bad, so that these potential adopters know what to expect.

So when someone is interested in a dog on our website, we work with the rescue. They're like search engines for rescue dogs. Have you heard of like Petfinder or adopt to pet .com? Yeah, you hear of services of such, you know, and it's kind of like a doggy dating app, right? Yeah, they are amazing. So what I love about them and to be honest, I've used them myself, Chris.

that you can look at pet finder .com adopt a pet .com and you can say, I want, I want a dog and they will show you all the rescue dogs in your area because most rescues are on these, these websites and you can sort by, I want to look for a specific breed. I want to look for a specific age. I definitely want a female, not a male. You know, you can do all this and then it's pointing you to the rescue that has the exact dog you're looking for, which it's just been a game changer.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 08:01

You know, so, you know, it like my husband loves spitz breeds dogs like Pomeranians. And so when we were looking for a Pomeranian, we went on Petfinder or adopt a pet and we found a Pomeranian that we wanted to adopt. So they're just really helping people rescue and they're meeting in need. Yeah. So, so people, yeah. Well, I saw firsthand, uh, you know, what you were just describing, you know, we had a meeting, what a week or so ago and I came into the facility and.

There was just, I think, four or five of the, I'll call them little puppies, but they weren't so little. I think they were going to be miniature horses when they grew. But I had the time of my life playing with them and just interacting and seeing their personalities. And it was very evident, the care and the environment that you guys provide for those animals is loving and safe and all the things we would want for our own children, given what animals are to many of us. So.

I know we were going to get into a little bit about finding dogs more so, but I wanted to talk briefly about the facility itself. You know, earlier on I mentioned, you know, Second City Canine Rescue is in my hometown of Palatine and even more oddly enough, it's like a block away from where I live. And so I got to see the transformation for those that don't know the facility itself was previously a Chinese restaurant and it sat vacant for some years. COVID kind of got to it, if I recall correctly.

in some capacity, but you guys took that building over and transformed the neighborhood, transformed the building. There's now people, volunteers, walking dogs up and down the blocks. Kids are petting the puppies in the parking lot. There's a lot of great things going on. So if you don't mind, talk about that transition. Yeah, so before we bought this building, for almost a decade, we were foster home only, which meant we were really relying on our PetSmart relationship.

They were hosting our adoption shows, and to be honest, they still do. And we were having to go and find somewhere to have a space where adopters could meet the dogs. Whereas now with our adoption center, people can, they have a place to go if they want to just talk about our adoption process, if they want to donate some, you know, old towels or, you know, food or whatever. And so it's just been such a community hub. Like, Chris, I, we had,

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a woman bring her two, you know, like four or five year old daughters in. And she said, look, my girls are scared of dogs and I really want them to kind of get over that and like, or see if we can make progress on that. So she said, I wanted to bring them in just so they could like interact with some puppies who I think won't be as scary. And when I, when they first came in, one of the girls was like in the corner, you know, like to the point where I didn't even see her when I walked in the room, she was so afraid. But by the end of the hour that they were there,

both girls were playing with puppies and they were just comfortable. The mom was happy, the puppies were happy, you know, the girls were happy. So it's just that kind of community. I am loving having our adoption center even just for that. Yeah, no, it's fantastic. And again, I'm so fortunate to get to witness it firsthand, you know, very often. And, you know, all of that work that we've described and all of the work that went into building the facility,

certainly doesn't come for free, right? And you know, the second city - Don't I know it. Yeah, exactly. And your role as the director of development, you know, in charge of raising money as best as possible and helping that facility and that organization being Second City Canyon Rescue flourish as it has. You know, talk a little bit now about your role. So let's get off the dogs and get onto the human side and how you guys make this thing happen. If you don't mind, talk a little bit about your role and then we'll get into this week's event.

Sure, absolutely. So, you know, Second City Canine Rescue is all privately funded. We don't get money from the government because we're not taking in strays, things like that. So about 25 % of our revenue comes from our adoption fees, which means that I am responsible for making sure we get in the other 75 % of our revenue, which is, you know, we're going to need over $800 ,000 this year, you know, to vet all the puppies, get them the food and the meds that they need, you know, pay for our heating or building, all those great things.

You know, we need money for that. So we do tons of different ways that we're going to raise this money. I do apply for some private grants. There are family foundations out there. We have a great partnership with an organization called Gray Muzzle that helps us afford a senior dog program. Senior dogs are more expensive, but we want to get those dogs out of the shelters, especially into a foster home. So we've got a great senior dog program.

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We also, we do one event every quarter. I've tried to cap it at one event every quarter so we don't, you know, be overwhelmed with events. Because events can kind of overtake, you know, your time and your energy. And what I am trying to do is also grow our non -event related fundraising. So that's creating a legacy society, make sure people know they can leave us in their wills. You know, just signing us up for, you know,

It's a car donation program where it's really on the back end. Like we don't have to do anything, but you know, it's just another way somebody can support us if they've got a vehicle that doesn't run anymore, they can donate it. We'll get a couple hundred bucks. You know, just kind of things like that, that, you know, you just got money coming in in the background and just get people thinking of us on a regular basis when they're thinking about, you know, what do I, who do I want to support this year? What organizations do I want to make sure stay in business, you know, and help the community?

So we're working on that as well. Yeah, no, $800 ,000 is a no small task. And if you haven't already, for those of you watching, please take a second, scan that QR code, you get an opportunity to go check out sccrescue .org and all the amazing work that Christina's so elegantly described today. So please scan the code. I'm sure there's ways to donate. And even most importantly, you mentioned events, Christina, and not overwhelming.

donors and participants with those, but we have an event coming up together this coming week and I am so excited and just been such an honor to be able to work with you. I get to know you personally and all the work that you guys do, but coming up this Saturday we have cocktails for canines. I'm going to be on stage serving as your auctioneer and I'm so honored again to be able to do that, but tell everybody about that. What's that all about? What are participants looking at? What do they have in store? Can they still get tickets?

Tell everybody how to get to get going. Yeah. So this is our big gala and I didn't start this. This is our ninth time we're having this gala. There was there was even a little COVID delay there. So it's been going on for quite a while. This is our big lift and lucky for me, the second city canine rescue board is amazing. Like they really.

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put their full effort into making sure this event is successful in terms of like really hitting up their business contacts, their personal contacts, because that is key to making sure an event and a nonprofit is successful is getting the support right from the top. So I'm very lucky in that sense is that I've got a great partnership with our second city canine rescue board. So this is our gala. We're having it at a Vante Banquet. And when you're when you're coming into a ninth year of an event.

My challenge is to make sure it stays fresh. It stays an event that people wanna come to year after year. And so, we're bringing you in for the first time. I'm very excited. I love your warm personality. I think you're gonna connect to our supporters. I think you're really gonna hi, you and Dina Bear, our WGN anchor, who's our MC. I think the two of you are just gonna connect really well with our audience and make them.

understand why they're there. And it's not, you know, it's not just a night out, you know, with your friends, they're really coming to do some good. So we've got so we put a lot of effort into this. People can support us by joining our buying a raffle ticket to our dream getaway. We have we this is a consignment trip that we buy. And this year, it's another challenge that I've had is we were switching companies so we can offer a new destinations.

You know, this again, this is we've done this for several years in a row. We're trying to keep it fresh. So we're partnering with Lux Give on offering the winner a trip to Spain, a trip to the Hamptons or a trip to a stargazing dome in Canada. I mean, just really neat, really neat options. Too bad the event wasn't a little bit earlier. We could have we could have provided like an eclipse getaway. We were talking behind the scenes before the show, you know, at all the gatherings in southern Indiana that we've.

kind of come to know, but yeah, you know, again, first off, I just want to say thank you for the kind words. You know, I am just so ecstatic to be able to work together and you know, we have some great items for participants to bid on in person and I know you guys have some online stuff going on as well, but you know, are tickets still available? Can somebody here locally still attend? You know, talk a little bit about where we're at and what is the goal? You know, I think it's very important for.

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for listeners and for participants to know what's the goal for the night? What are we trying to raise? What's the expectation? Because I don't want to fail myself either. Well, don't be afraid by this goal, Chris, but our goal is $275 ,000. All right, you heard it. It's a big goal. All right, so if we hit 274, we're a failure, right? Is that what you're telling me?

No, I will be thrilled with 274. Listen, so that's our goal. And I think it's important for those watching that are supportive of Second City Canine Rescue and all the work that they do to understand the need and to understand the goal. Should we not hit it, it doesn't mean we're a failure. It just means we're going to work harder to make up the difference in somewhere else. And so 275 is the mark. We have some great items. I know I'm bringing a few myself. We were talking back and forth, Christina.

I didn't know you were quite the Swiftie. So I'm providing a Taylor Swift autograph, the CD collage and a Connor Bedard jersey. And you grilled me pretty hard. You were like, Chris, is this the Taylor version or the original? I couldn't believe it. So what are some other auction items that you're excited about for the night? We've got a week in Aruba at just

gorgeous beachfront resort. One of our volunteers has a timeshare down there and she has generously given us one of her weeks. We've got a weekend in Chicago with us staying the night at the Palmer Hotel, which is a historic.

gorgeous four star hotel right downtown Chicago with all kinds of activities to do during the day. Of course, a deep dish pizza is included. If you're going to Chicago, you got to have deep dish pizza. Chicago is the best, right? We're biased. Exactly. And then we've got sports tickets. We've got something for the people that like to stay home and just grill. So we've got a Weber grill and then barbecue cooking classes.

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And then we've got things for people that want to go out and have a night on the town. So we've got like a Kate Spade bag that is gorgeous, but it's very blingy. And then we've got, you can take your fancy Kate Spade bag and go to a really nice restaurant up by Barrington. So we've got something for everybody. Yeah, no, well, it's important, you know, an effort to raise that $275 ,000 that we do appeal to all.

last we checked the guest list was at how many? 260, I think we were at last. 260 and we are sold out for in -person, but the awesome part about auctions these days is that people can participate online. So the auction is going to open tomorrow, or I'm sorry, Wednesday at noon, and it's going to stay open until Saturday at 10 o 'clock central time. Okay. So for those of you that are watching that are not locally going to the event,

this coming Saturday, April 13th, please get online, scan that QR code that Syya had put up earlier, go to sccrescue .org. You could bid on some online auction items. There's some fantastic items to be had. And as I always say, as an auctioneer, there's two types of people that come to auctions. Those that are there to support and those are looking for steals and deals. And so those of you that are online and helping support sccrescue .org,

Please bid on something that you find intriguing and help us raise that $275 ,000. So, you know, Christina, before we sign off, I just want to say thank you for all the work you do here in Palatine and all the work you do for canines nationally. I want to give you an opportunity one last time to talk a little bit more about yourself and all the work you do and anything else you want to highlight before we get to this eclipse. All right. I'll keep it quick for Syya's sake.

I just thank you so much for having us on. I'd love to talk about rescue. You know, the whole United States is a little bit inundated with dogs in shelters and rescues ever since we're coming out of COVID. So, you know, if people are thinking of adding a family member, you know, I really encourage them to look at rescue. There's nothing wrong with these dogs. I mean, I have rescue dogs myself. I love them. They have really improved my life.

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And I would just love that everybody watching just thinks of rescue next time they're looking at a dog or a cat or any kind of animal. Yeah, no, it's so important. And growing up, I would sit on my grandfather's lap watching the prices right, right. And Bob Barker would always end, have your pet spay or neutered. And what is the perspective that you guys take on that as well?

Well, it's Illinois state law that we have to spay and neuter dogs that we adopt out. So we don't really have a choice. We have to. Yeah. And of course, we want to. Yeah. No, it's great to know that there are laws in place. Right. And so it's a question of naivety. And I'm glad I know that now. Right. I know there's various opinions personally and whether it is. But but most importantly, this coming Saturday, April 13th, we'll be working together. Cocktails for canines raising two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars.

If you're planning on attending the event, please help us achieve that mark And if not, please get on scc rescue org check out the auction items support make a donation Do whatever it is you have to do see if you're backstage Why don't you come on up and say goodbye and I want to make sure that you have enough time to get to that eclipse Is she coming to kind of you guys yeah, no, I guess I should probably take off some of the stuff here I didn't expect you to call me out young man. Why not?

Well, I'm not young for one. And lastly, I wanted to highlight you because, you know, as we were preparing to launch the appeal and as you got to know Christina, you were sending pictures back and forth yourself, madam, about a puppy you are now fostering. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you're doing? Yeah, well, I'm not doing it. It's actually my mother. I guess you can call her my mother -in -law. My mother -in -law. Not legally mother -in -law, but whatever. Long relationship. Whatevs.

But anyway, no, she's rescuing a pup that lost his mother. We got him at, I think she said 12 days old. So he's now about 22, 23. We just discovered he has worms. So now we started up on that. I know the poor baby, but he's a tiny little thing. And we've just been doing our due diligence, studying up, reading all the resources. By the way, I did recommend.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 24:12

All the resources that you guys are providing, I sent her your way. I go, mom, check them out. Um, so yeah, all these babies, you know, they don't ask to be born and left in abandoned. So thank you for everyone. That's going to donate. Let's get you guys to 275 K. Um, I'm all for it. So if LinkedIn guys, let's get the power of LinkedIn to help out and YouTube, cause we are all on YouTube as well. Yeah, let's please, let's, you know, uh, skip a Starbucks and throw $5 SCC, uh, as a way, please. And so.

Ladies, thank you so much for the time today. Christina, thank you for all the work you do. I'm excited to work with you this coming Saturday. And let's get to that eclipse, ladies. Yeah, yeah. But just one last thing. I think that I know you wanted to do because you love your friends so much. Just a quick shout out to you. So just a quick shout out to the friends of Hail Hail Auctions. I'll let you do speaking, sir. Yeah, no, listen, you know, we are a power of a community that are some great people doing great work.

on LinkedIn and YouTube and many other fashions and most importantly, like tangibly in the world. And so Mr. Kel Flores and her influencers connection corner, you know, she's the model, right? She's the mark of what I want this show to be, the appeal. And so without her and her influence, you know, we couldn't help hit that 275 ,000 and obviously Tausie Brands and all the comfort they provide and Mark Reed in Japan. So now Christina, you can tell your board that there's awareness in Japan.

about the work you folks do. And Soaring Profits are in Canada. And so they're now aware of all the great work you folks do. And business buying banter, Deb Curtis, she's just up the road in East Troy. I'm gonna sleep on her couch for a couple of Dave Matthew shows at Alpine. But nevertheless, our partners and then last, Jodi Lamb and all the work she does with safeguarding. How do I say it? She changed it recently, Syya. Yeah, it's safeguard your settlement.

Yeah, and so she does the structured settlements and she ensures that folks that unfortunately things in life happen, but if you do get a settlement and you are incredibly irresponsible with money like me, you may want to have deferred payments. It's a great tax savings. You don't get hit. Actually, not only that, you want to take some of that settlement and you want to give it to second city canine rescue 100. With that being said, let's get to that eclipse. I appreciate everybody and my partners, the two of you.

Syya Yasotornrat (: 26:38

Christine, I'll see you Saturday and see you roll that outro. Excellent. We'll say so much everyone. Thank you. Bye.