BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor Humane Society is hosting its second annual 'Imperfectly Perfect Pet Portrait' fundraiser. Anyone who donated $20 to the fundraiser last week will receive a portrait of their pet based on the picture they provided.
In the wise words of Forrest Gump, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." The same concept applies to these portraits.
Kathryn Ravenscraft, director of development at the Bangor Humane Society, said that added element of surprise is all part of the fun.
Anyone of any age or skill level can volunteer to draw some of the portraits. Paige Kurikka, adoption counselor at the shelter, said there is a wide range of artists participating.
"You might get a really good artistic drawing, or you might get a blob with some stick legs," Kurikka said.
"You could get my work which is borderline stick figure. Maybe I can use some crayons," Ravenscraft said.
NEWS CENTER Maine wanted to get in on the fun, so the station donated $60 for portraits of Amanda Hill's dog, Jackson, Pat Callaghan's dog, Fitzgerald (also known as Fitzy), and Keith Carson's dog, Reeses.
"Right now, we've got over 300 submissions that came in through the end of last week, and we still have a little over a hundred portraits that need to be drawn," Ravenscraft said.
After a person donated $20 or more, they were directed to post a picture of their dog in the comment section of the Facebook post so that the "artists" could get to work.
Once the artists are done with their finished work, they then comment back to the donor's comment on the original Facebook post with a picture of the result.
Ravenscraft said they raised more than $7,000, which goes toward taking care of the pets.
Kurikka said the donors are typically happy no matter what kind of picture they end up with.
"If it's bad, they don't say it's bad. They're good sports about it," Kurikka said.
"It may not be something that you want to hang in your house, but you're probably going to get a good laugh from it," Ravenscraft said.
Anyone interested in putting their artistic abilities to the test and volunteering to draw some portraits can click here to join the Facebook group for it.
"If you're a teacher, and you have a classroom full of kids. If you are part of a group that loves to work on art. If you're just an individual, and maybe you want to try your hand at one or two of them, I don't need you to do hundreds. But every person that can step forward and do just one will help us get through," Ravenscraft said.
Ravenscraft said all portraits are expected to be completed by April 8.