A small, $8 donation to the Friends of the Franklin County Regional Dog Shelter from 10-year-old Charlotte Cooley of Greenfield turned into nearly $500 after three weeks of donation matching spurred on by a Facebook post in early January. 

Cooley, along with her family, dog shelter staff and sheriff’s office staff, gathered in the office of interim Franklin County Sheriff Lori Streeter on the afternoon of Monday, Feb. 3 to celebrate the act of generosity by Cooley.

After the initial Facebook post on Jan. 10 sharing Cooley’s letter to the shelter about her donation, local residents and beyond started matching her donation and offering more, eventually reaching $468. 

To say thank you to Cooley, the sheriff’s office worked with the dog shelter to put together a poster board with photos of the dogs at the shelter alongside Cooley’s donation letter, a Build-A-Bear Workshop police bear and a goodie-bag of items, including a sweatshirt, calenders, hats and more. 

Cooley told the Greenfield Recorder that in the past, she’s donated her lemonade stand money to other shelters like Dakin, but chose to donate to the regional dog shelter this time.

“I was really happy that all these dogs are going to be helped,” Cooley said about her donation. 

Franklin County Regional Dog Shelter Office Manager Gabbi Trudeau expressed her gratitude to the community for stepping up to match Cooley’s donation.

“It gave a lot of publicity to the shelter, and it got Facebook up and running with ‘Let’s everybody match.’ We had a lot of people sharing it on their pages [saying] ‘Look at this great thing.’”

The dog shelter is owned by the sheriff’s office, but funding for day-to-day operation comes from donations.

The donations will cover medical expenses for the six to eight dogs that are at the shelter at a time, which includes medication, spaying and neutering, and other medical needs. Trudeau said that food is usually donated, alleviating the need for food purchases. 

To learn more, and to donate to the Friends of the Franklin County Regional Dog Shelter, visit https://www.fcrdogkennel.org/about-us. 

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.