Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Chattahoochee Humane Society will be hosting the Jordan’s Way fundraising organization on Jan. 25 to raise $15,000 during the three-hour Facebook Live event.

The shelter’s goal is to raise $15,000, and if they meet their goal, Chattahoochee Humane Society Director Amber Mingin will spend the night locked in the shelter. 

“[People] always say like ‘anything for the dogs,’” said Kris Rotonda, founder and CEO of Jordan’s Way.  “I definitely put it to the test.”

Chattahoochee Humane Society was nominated for the organization’s national tour with over 80 nominations to the website alone, not including the comments on their Facebook page. Rotonda said the shelter hopes to rebuild the relationship with the community, and he hopes the fundraiser will help with that.

“For me, I want to bring a very positive three hours for them and something their community watching live can really embrace and embark on,” Rotonda said. 

The whole fundraiser takes place inside the shelter with the kennels to help give the dogs exposure. 

During the event, the staff and local public figures do anything from sponsoring treats and toys for the animals to pranks like a pie to the face. Rotonda said they have done things like the ice bucket challenge, slime buckets and dunk tanks. 

“It’s like a mix between like a Jerry Lewis telethon and a Nickelodeon show,” Rotonda said. 

Over the years, he has shaved 70 women’s heads and waxed 100 guys’ chests across the country. But that’s not the wildest thing Rotonda has seen someone do to raise money. 

“The craziest I’ve ever seen was, in Nebraska recently a sheriff Tased one of his deputies,” he said. 

Rotonda said he visits 300 shelters in 50 states each year. He does two fundraisers a day and around 25 fundraisers a month. 

Rotonda said the most they’ve raised is anywhere from $5,000 to $130,000 in the three-hour window. In the last three years, Jordan’s Way has raised $7.5 million for shelters around the state. 

“I’ve been to every state now twice, going on my third time,” Rotonda said. “And we have partners that are repeated every year that we keep building on, and we’re also adding on new partners every year.”

Rotonda encouraged people from the community to come out and join in on the event. He said one of his proudest moments is seeing local public figures like mayors and police chiefs come out and show their support for their shelter. 

“I go to very small towns on purpose,” Kris said. “And to see a fundraiser get 200 donors in three hours, that’s like my proudest thing.”

Jordan’s Way got its origin in 2018 with a fundraiser that Rotonda held via Facebook Live for his local animal shelter in Safety Harbor. In 2009, he adopted Jordan from the shelter. She had sat at the back of a crowded kennel as a veteran resident for four years.

After 10 years together, Rotonda’s dog, Jordan, recently passed away from cancer. The initial fundraiser was such a success that Rotonda decided to take the show on the road.