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Hope for Santa Rosa County FL, Inc. hosted their Paws for Spring event on 
April 7, at the Springhill Suites lobby in Navarre Beach. The group gathered 
to host a Sunday Brunch to discuss the newest updates to the A Hope project. 
President Brandi Winkelman announced that she received an important 

phone call from a special donor, who generously gifted the organization $100,000 to go 
toward obtaining land to build their proposed spay and neuter clinic. With this donation, 
the dream of this very much needed clinic will become more of a reality.

A Hope is a nonprofit organization, and is actively seeking to improve their chances 

to receive government funded grants by obtaining land for a new building. The goal is 
to locate a piece of property which is easily accessible, close to the interstate, or Avalon 
Boulevard in Milton. These grants will aid in the cost of covering care for the animals the 
clinic brings in, more surgeries, and growth in the future. There are an estimated 30,000 
feral cats in Santa Rosa County alone, and A Hope receives over 300 calls a month, and 
assists in transport for 60-80 cats every two weeks. 

To begin, A Hope would like to be able to provide opportunities to local area civic 

groups to come in and teach, and feature glass windows in the surgery areas, in order       
to educate individuals on the spay and neuter processes. A Hope is striving to give 
residents an opportunity to help control the feral cat population in Santa Rosa County 
by providing a low-cost option to have community cats fixed early, before their impact 
becomes problematic. 

photos & story by

Kristina Wright

   VIP Pensacola at Springhill Suites Lobby

Paws fr Spring

16     |    VIPPensacola.com

Kelly & Reed Gahagan

Roy & Marcia Tugwell 

Paige Cary, Gay Deese & Brandi Winkelman 

Michelle Bohannon & Toni Wayne

Cindy Law & Debbie Lewis

Malgorzata Hoffman & Dave Mawhinney

Steve Barber & Cynthia Arnold

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4/30/19   8:11 AM