by Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

At the 2nd Long Island Pet Professionals (LIPP) Annual Holiday Party and Pet Food Drive at Lily Flannigan’s in Babylon, NY on Monday, December 19, 2011 – 400lbs of pet food was donated by Long Island Pet Professional Members!  We beat our record from last year’s holiday party which was 300lbs, and I am so delighted and happy with the generosity of our Members who stepped up and brought a lot of pet food with them to donate!  This pet food will help pet owners

Pat Bonelli, Island Harvest Volunteer and Nancy Hassel, Founder Long Island Pet Professionals

feed their pets who may have fallen on hard times.  We often think of donating to charity during the Holiday’s, but don’t always think about pet owners. This year we partnered with Island Harvest to donate the food for their Pet Food Pantry.  Island Harvest’s Pet Food Pantry plays such an integral part for pet owners help feed their pets and keep their pets by offering pet food at their food pantry.  Our shelters are full with homeless pets so if this 400lbs of food can help keep more pets in their loving homes, I can’t say how much it means to me, and also to our members.

“All too often pets are abandoned or given up for adoption simply because their owners are faced the unenviable choice of putting food on the family table or feeding their pets,” said Randi Shubin Dresner, president and CEO, Island Harvest. “Thanks to Long Island Pet Professionals, help is available to allow people struggling to make ends meet keep their pets by providing much needed food assistance.”

But the pet food donation was just part of the Holiday fun for the 2nd Annual Holiday Party & Pet Food Drive – members from all over Long Island, Queens the East End, North Shore and Nassau county flocked to Babylon (some even utilized the LIRR to get there!) to be at the festive event.  With product donations from Halo, Purely for Pets, Sturdi Pet Products, Life is Grruff, Watercolor Your World, M&J Dog Essentials, Natural Paws and Premier each attendee not only left with new contacts via the networking that was also going on – but a really nice pet swag gift bag!  There were also many free raffle giveaways – almost everyone in the room won a product or gift certificate – and everyone was cheering for each winner!

Stephanie from MyLITV!

On top of that members were thrilled to have new LIPP member Jen Ross from MyLITV.com on hand conducting interviews throughout the night for an upcoming segment.  What a perk for LIPP members to be able to speak on camera about their businesses or rescues!

Michael Ayalon of PetWebDesigner.com, Beth Gold of At Your Service LI & Robyn Elman of In Home Pet Services, Inc.

Normally our networking meetings are a little more formal with expert speakers giving presentations to the group, although we usually have a great time at every event, this Holiday Party is a way for us to mingle, network, enjoy the holiday spirit, celebrate, give back and look forward to the New Year.  We had members attend last night’s party that have been with us for the past three years and many new members – and its always great to see new connections being made and hearing how members are going to be working together.

Many events are being planned for LIPP in the New Year, including the first NYC chapter event for the group, as there are LIPP members who live and work in NYC.  The first event however, is a free online event taking place on January 12th to help pet professionals and animal rescues learn the ‘Art of the Tweet!’  To learn more click here!

Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year! See below for more pictures thanks to Richie of PetsPhotography and also on our Facebook page here!