If you’ve seen one wedding registry, you’ve probably seen them all. Most newlyweds ask their guests for assorted household items, but not Jonathan and Jeananne Wickham. They requested friends and family donate money that would benefit a local animal shelter.
“We’d been together for seven years and we didn’t have a need for traditional gifts like the mixers and the toasters,” Jonathan said according to The Daily Record. “We’re really big into animal welfare and rescue so we wanted to take an opportunity to give back to this shelter specifically because I grew up in Wooster.”
The Ohio couple, who have six rescue cats of their own, chose to lend a helping hand to the Wayne County Humane Society.
“We also felt this shelter could use it the best and had the most need for it, so in thinking about how we could do the most good for something like this, this shelter was the one we decided on,” Jeananne said.
After their wedding, the Wickhams went shopping for items to donate to the shelter. They purchased mops, 1,200 cans of wet food, 750 pounds of dry food, and enough cleaning supplies to last the shelter many, many months.
The couple also donated $2,000 for emergency vet bills, which Carrie Andrew, the shelter director, said came at the perfect time.
The funds were used to pay for the surgeries for two cats, who might not have made it had they not been able to receive surgery.
“The ultimate goal was so the humane society could use its own money in a more strategic way,” Jeananne said.
And for that the Wayne County Humane Society is extremely thankful.
“This has saved us thousands of dollars in food,” Carrie said.
“We accumulate so much stuff in our lives and even if you think in the future, ‘Maybe, I’ll need this,’ if you can do some good with a large or small event, then do that,” Jeananne said. “Truly, there was nothing in our lives that we needed to have a registry so we could get this or get that. We could get those things for ourselves, but this we couldn’t do by ourselves.”
What a generous thing to do! Imagine if more couples asked for donations for a charity they care about.
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