Ten mid-Missouri charities will reap the benefits through a collaboration of art and local business support.
Those charities received checks from Tigers on the Prowl, an organization that auctions off painted tiger statutes, on Wednesday. This year, the organization raised nearly $95,000.
“When we’re moving the tigers around people really enjoy seeing them and are very curious to know why they’re there,” said Nick Parks, president of Tigers on the Prowl. “So it’s kind of fun to explain to them that we’re doing this to raise money for 10 local charities.”
Tigers on the Prowl has collaborated with local charities for four years to raise money and bring awareness to smaller charities. In order to participate, charities go through an application process and then are selected by a committee. The selected charities are then paired with a local artists and receive a life-size tiger statue. Local businesses sponsor the statues.
The tigers are revealed in July and then prepared for auction in September. According to Parks, each year the program has been able to raise close to $100,000 dollars in total.
Chuck Crews, the founder of Tigers on the Prowl, got the idea from a vacation he took to Wisconsin.
“[In] Eagle River, Wisconsin, they had bigger-than-life size, three times the size of a regular eagle that artists decorated at local street fair and then they auctioned them off for local charities,” said Crews.
The organization is run by volunteers and Crews encourages anyone who wants to get involved with the organization to volunteer their time.