BLUE RIDGE, Ga. – With 500 tickets sold, Taste of Blue Ridge, an annual fundraiser for the Humane Society of Blue Ridge (HSBR), continues to be a huge success.

This annual event not only brings in funds for the homeless animal population of our area but also creates opportunities for HSBR to provide services, awareness, and education to Fannin County and surrounding area residents.

Owners of Tupleo Tea and Blue Ridge Olive Oil Company, Tom and Donna Harper, participate in Taste of Blue Ridge for a fifth year.

HSBR has a main shelter where volunteers and staff take in stray cats and dogs from our area and provide them with proper socialization and medical care in hopes of ultimately finding “furever” homes.

Beyond the shelter, HSBR runs a Trap Neuter Release program to combat the ever-growing populations of feral cat colonies. This program has been wildly successful in the past few years with residents commenting on the fewer number of these cats.

HSBR has also been awarded grants in the past to help provide low-cost spay and neutering for family pets, and currently has a low-cost micro-chipping program to provide extra resources to pet owners in the event that their pet becomes missing.

Taste of Blue Ridge provides HSBR supporters with an evening of fun, food, and a silent auction. Area shops and restaurants set up to serve patrons with samples of what our area has to offer in dining and atmosphere.

Donna Harper, owner of Blue Ridge Olive Oil Company and Tupelo Tea, has donated her services to the event for five years.

“This is awesome,” Harper enthusiastically spoke of Taste of Blue Ridge, “an awesome event. The people are here for the dogs and the cats. It’s great to see so many volunteers. It’s always been an incredible event.”

Brannan Mathis and family, owners of Mystic Mountain Pizza, enjoyed serving for a good cause at Taste of Blue Ridge.

Brennan Mathis, owner of Mystic Mountain Pizza and a first-time participant at Taste of Blue Ridge, agreed with the sentiment shared by Harper: “It’s a really worthwhile cause.”

“We love animals and we love Blue Ridge,” Mathis said, explaining her reason for wanting to participate. “We’re just happy to be here serving up some really awesome food for some really awesome people.”

Taste of Blue Ridge continues to top its own records each year, with tickets to this event selling out in less than three weeks. Each year seems to bring with it an ever-growing response and success.

“It really is the big one, ” Silent Auction Co-Chair Suzanne Ponton explained of the importance of Taste of Blue Ridge for HSBR. “It’s our opportunity to really highlight the humane society, some of the different things we do for the community, and of course, the animals.”

With this year’s Taste of Blue Ridge an official success for HSBR, a small break will be taken before planning begins to host another successful event in 2019.

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