Volunteer donates thousands in winnings to Friends for Animals

Peg DeMarco once won money in a baseball pool and later a couple hundred dollars at bingo. Until recently that was about it. Her luck changed when she bought five tickets online for a raffle sponsored by a NASCAR driver and his foundation for pets.
DeMarco's name was drawn from thousands of entries in the "Split-the-Pot for Pets" raffle hosted by Charity Splits for the benefit of the Greg Biffle Foundation. DeMarco won $11,388.20.
The foundation, which was started by Biffle and his wife Nicole, received the same amount from the raffle, said Emily DiNunzio, executive director of the Greg Biffle Foundation.
DeMarco on Monday donated $10,000 of her winnings to Friends for Animals Humane Society of Burke County. She will donate the remaining winnings to other animal rescue groups, DeMarco said.
Biffle, who drives the No. 16 3M Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, and DiNunzio visited Friends for Animals on Monday to hand-deliver the winnings to DeMarco who, in turn, passed $10,000 on to Toni Davis, Friends for Animals' director.
DeMarco said that if she won $1 million, she would had given all of it to Friends for Animals.
She said, "I see firsthand how hard the staff and volunteers work and how many abandoned animals they take in and find homes for. It only takes one pair of sad eyes on an abandoned puppy to melt my heart."
Ryan West of Charity Splits said in a news release, "Peg turning around and donating a large amount of her winnings to another animal welfare group is exactly what we had in mind when we designed this split-the-pot on-line raffle program. We couldn't have asked for a better result."
DeMarco is no stranger to finding money for Friends for Animals. She volunteers at the shelter, donating her experience as a grant writer.
"I started volunteering in late 2007 after my son had adopted a dog from the shelter," she said. "Toni and her hard-working staff and volunteers were so kind and quickly welcomed me into the FFA family."
As a non-profit, Friends for Animals depends mostly on donations, fundraisers and grants. DeMarco has applied for grants to the Greg Biffle Foundation. She knew of Biffle as a NASCAR driver and had read about his involvement with animal issues.
She said, "The foundation makes grants to shelters like ours so it naturally was one of the first organizations we applied to for a grant. They were inundated with grant requests last year, so we missed out, but we'll try again this year."
In 2008, DeMarco also appealed to the foundation for help when Friends for Animals gathered signatures to take to Washington, D.C., in July. DeMarco and two others from Burke County met with state representatives to campaign against puppy mills and other animal issues.
"The (Biffle) foundation was very receptive and pitched in to help us spread the word," DeMarco said.
"Once I saw the announcement about the raffle, I thought I would give it a try. Their dedication to the foundation that was formed to make the world a better place for animals rubs off on anyone who comes into contact with them."
The Greg Biffle Foundation is working on building a shelter in Mooresville similar to Friends for Animals.
"We've done a lot behind the scenes," Biffle said. "We're close to really getting it going."
Davis gave Biffle a tour of Friends for Animals, which adopted out 1,560 dogs and cats last year and is the largest no-kill shelter in Western North Carolina.
He saw the cat room where dozens of felines spend their days and nights waiting to be adopted out.
He saw the kennels where dozens more dogs bark and vie for any human contact, whether it's from a NASCAR star or not.
He saw the spay and neuter room and talked about the importance of preventing over-population of dogs and cats.
After the tour, Biffle retrieved Foster, his 7-year-old boxer, from his white Ford pickup. In Friends for Animals' lobby, a man who bump drafts on the race track, with the likes of Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr., performed tricks with his dog who is undergoing treatments for thyroid cancer.
It was through Foster that Biffle fell in love with animals, prompting him and his wife to start their foundation in 2005. With its share from the raffle the foundation will dole out grants to animal-welfare groups to fund programs like spaying and neutering animals, DiNunzio said.
At Friends for Animals, one of Davis' dreams is adding an educational wing to the shelter. DeMarco's gift won't cover that cost, but it might help.
"Just like everyone else today, FFA is facing very hard times in meeting escalating costs," DeMarco said. "We need more space and want to do so much more for the animals, but we'll just have to see where the need is the greatest."

• View a video of Greg Biffle's visit to Friends for Animals and see more photos at morganton.com/video
• Links
www.burkecountyfriends4animals.org/
www.gregbifflefoundation.com
www.roushracing.com/