I have attended the annual Arizona Animal Welfare League (AAWL) Walk to Save Animals for several years now. This is the third year Matt and I have gone together and the second year Khloee has come along. It’s always a wonderful event full of vendors, adoptions, free samples and a 2k or 5k walk! This year the weather was perfect and the event was a huge success.
What I love most about this event is seeing all of the people who show up with their dogs. Every year it’s the biggest pet event I go to and I feel like a majority of people there have rescue animals. It’s just a different crowd. I don’t see prong collars or people being rough with their dogs like I see at other events. Thank God.
Matt and I got to the event around 9am and we immediately got to walking! We took a picture with the mascot and the big Natural Balance Tillman inflatable at the start line (RIP Tillman). It was around 60° and sunny out. Tempe Town Lake was looking glorious and many people were out enjoying the morning.
The walk was nice and easy for us. Most people walk with their dogs, although there are a few people with athletic dogs here and there who run. Since Khloee and Wynston are small we walked the 2k. I didn’t bring the stroller so I didn’t want to push it with Wynston. Tomorrow we are walking another 5k so we’ve got to have some energy left.
After the walk we browsed the vendors for free samples. I only took ones that I knew I would feed to my kids, like Zuke’s, Natural Balance and Nutro. We didn’t spend a ton of time among the vendors because it was wall to wall people. There were also other fun things going on at the event such as pictures with Santa, an agility and lure course and animal blessings. Many small pet businesses had booths set up and if you were hungry, the food trucks had you covered!
Overall it was a great event, as it always is! I’m looking forward to attending next year.
Have you attended any pet events or charity walks lately?
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