For the second year in a row, Laura Ballard and Asha Colianni of the Blue Mutt – a volunteer-run retail store – have orchestrated a series of musical events to raise funds for St. Croix’s animal welfare and rescue groups.
Ballard and Colianni started the Blue Mutt in 2012 as a branch of the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center and began selling books and items for pets. In 2014 they incorporated and broke from the AWC so they could support the other animal rights groups that were being formed on the island, according to Colianni.
Now the Blue Mutt sells gifts for humans as well as animals and most of the profits continue to support the AWC “because they (AWC) still do the majority of the work,” Colianni said.
The upcoming Music for the Mutts concerts will benefit the AWC and the animal welfare organizations Healing Paws VI, Crucian Cowgirls Horse Rescue, the Sunshine Foundation and R.E.A.L. Cruzan Cats.
“We at the Blue Mutt are very shelter (AWC) oriented and we’ll assess the needs of the other organizations,” Ballard said, adding that they hoped to raise $10,000, with the majority of the funds going to the Animal Welfare Center.
Cruzan Cats and the Sunshine Foundation focus on low cost spay/neuter programs. Healing Paws VI arranges for pets to find homes on St. Croix or the mainland, and Crucian Cowgirls rescues, rehabilitates and finds homes for horses, dogs and cats.
With the exception of the AWC, all are grass roots organizations, run by volunteers and depend on donations for funding.
The concert’s featured musicians are Charlie Sexton, lead guitarist for Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan; his brother Will Sexton, artist, songwriter and producer who tours with his wife, vocalist Amy LaVere; and Donnie Herron, also a member of Dylan’s band who plays multiple string instruments.
Colianni and Ballard met the musicians through “friends of friends” and invited them last year to St. Croix to perform at three fundraising events and, because of that success, booked them again this year.
“Who wouldn’t want to be invited to vacation on St. Croix and, of course, there’s the two brothers playing together,” she said, adding that the Sexton brothers performed on stage as children but went separate ways as adults.
Two of the four concerts have sold out and there are only a few tickets available for Saturday’s Main Event at the Ha’Penny Beach Club for dinner, music and an auction. Ballard said the community has been very generous in providing items for the auction, including adventure tours and hang gliding lessons, jewelry and airline tickets. Tickets are $100 each and can be purchased at the Blue Mutt.
The second concert, Love Notes at Club Comanche Bar on Tuesday is a three-course drinks and desserts event with music and dancing. Tickets are $100 each at the Blue Mutt.
A post Jump Up party at Balter has sold out for Friday. Last Sunday’s preview event, a sunset sail with Lyric Sail, also sold out.
Ballard said she and Colianni create fundraising events “for the animals” and talked about an abandoned, half-blind puppy found on South Shore road Tuesday by the featured artists.
“It was clearly abandoned, almost blind and probably thrown out of a car,” she said. “This is all over the island. We’re seeing a lot more abandoned pets.”
