This past Sunday was our Top Dog Classic with Drew Butera, one of the best back-up/starting catchers in Major League Baseball. Drew has always had a passion for animals, so he wanted to partner with Top Golf and Wayside Waifs to create a fun charity opportunity. What stood out was people would purchase a ticket and be assigned a local celebrity, and it could’ve been a present or past player. The night was filled with fun, good conversation, and it all went towards a good cause.
Butera has always loved animals, and has helped Wayside Waifs early on during his time here in Kansas City. He visited our facility, and has said great things about the work we do with our animals. During the Royals FanFest, Butera visited our booth daily to visit some of the dogs and puppies present, and to raise awareness for homeless animals. He also enjoys the sport of golf, so he decided to combine the two with a charity event he always wanted.
Here is our promo video we did.
Confirmed Celebrities included: Drew Butera, Danny Duffy, Travis Wood, Ian Kennedy, Nate Karns, Peter Moylan, Jason Hammel, Chris Young, Matt Strahm, Alex Gordon, Rusty Kuntz, Don Wakamatsu, Pedro Grifol, Dale Sveum, Mirke Jirschele, Doug Henry, Whit Merrifield and Seth Maness. What is really nice is that it seems the whole team wanted to support Drew and Wayside Waifs. It speaks volumes on how great the Kansas City Royals are, whether it be on the field or off.
Sunday night was our big night! The event was from seven p.m. to ten p.m. and it was a blast! Our guests had the opportunity to play golf with a local celebrities, and they had a chance to socialize with them and take photos. We also had raffles for prizes, including a cooking experience at Williams Sonoma, a Tivol diamond necklace, a signed Clayton Kershaw jersey and Mike Trout’s autographed cleats. Wow! We also had puppies on site during the event and they received plenty of love and attention!
Puppies pictured are Badger(Terrier Mix), and Trolley(Retriever Mix)
Drew Butera, Peter Moylan, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, and Alex Gordon were among several players who couldn’t resist posing with a puppy!
All of the puppies at the event are available for adoption now, but several people at the event called our facility in hopes of being the first ones ready to adopt! We appreciated the support and kindness from everyone at TopGolf, the Kansas City Royals, and the Murphy-Hoffman Company. The players were very gracious and took pictures and signed things for people throughout the night, never batting an eye or losing their smile. Everyone from Kansas City should be proud to know how gracious our team is! Most importantly, we raised awareness for our organization and our animals, which is what Drew wanted as well. Here are some extra cute pictures just for your viewing pleasure!
Here our team is setting up the bays and getting ready hours before the event!
Whit Merrifield can’t resist the cuteness of Badger!
Our foster coordinator Morgan cuddling with Sammy, a favorite at the event!
Jason Vargas stopped by to pose with Badger!
Nate Karns enjoys some cuddles from Badger.
And for you loyal blog readers, I’m posting my selfie I took with Moose and Egg, just so you can see pictures of Egg cuddling up!
Overall, it was a lovely event with lovely people, and Wayside Waifs and Drew raised money for homeless animals, and that is the most important thing to take away from this!
You can visit us during our adoption hours!
- Monday: CLOSED
- Tuesday: CLOSED
- Wednesday: 12pm-8pm
- Thursday: 12pm-8pm
- Friday: 12pm-8pm
- Saturday: 10am-6pm
- Sunday: 1pm-6pm
Written by Teryn