FRANKLIN
For the past three years, Madelyn Cosby, 13, has used her artistic talents to raise funds for various local charities and causes. This year, she will be donating the proceeds from her annual silent art auction and bake sale to Partners Among Cats and Canines, a non-profit, Franklin and Southampton County-based, low-cost mobile spay/neuter clinic and network of foster homes for cats and dogs.
There is a third component to the fundraiser — a dog pageant. Dog owners are invited to dress up their canine companions and show them off on Saturday, Oct. 8, at 3 p.m. in the American Legion, Franklin. Prizes will be awarded and all participants will receive a gift.
The bake sale and silent auction will run 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to Cosby’s artwork, the auction will include an autographed cookbook from the Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, autographed books by Max Lucado and Karen Kingsbury.
“My brother makes custom horseshoe artwork, which is a big crowd pleaser,” said Madelyn’s mother, Kasey Cosby.
Proceeds from previous auctions have gone to the family of Breelyn Hewitt in 2015, who was born with a 4 1/2-pound teratoma growing off her tailbone, necessitating more than 10 separate surgeries and costing the family nearly $30,000 in out-of-pocket expenses. Other recipients have been Graz’n Acres Therapeutic Riding Center in 2014, and a friend of the family who had her house ransacked while in the hospital undergoing cancer treatments in 2013.
The total amount Cosby has been able to raise has doubled each year, with last year’s auction and sale bringing in $3,600.